The business outlook for Arab Women (page 3 of 3)

As chief executive of the Olayan Group, she recently launched a women's division to recruit under-used Saudi female talent. Olayan argues that educating and employing women will curb population growth.

"Some 200,000 people enter the Saudi workforce every year," Olayan says. "If there aren't enough jobs created, we face real social problems. We need to increase investment in Saudi businesses to absorb these young people, and to cut population growth.

"If women are educated and working, it's a natural way to reduce the birth rate. The role of women is clearly very important. There are many great women out there in the Arab world - women with great potential. As employers, we have to take advantage of this."

Rising regional divorce rates and later marriages require growing numbers of women to support themselves. Yet women are excluded from high-paying professions, held back from promotion and subject to unequal pay. Evidence suggests that women bear the brunt of Arab public-sector cutbacks and are the first casualties in low-paid or casual private-sector job cuts.

Arab women still lack the tools to compete. A recent study in the UAE reported that local women lacked relevant qualifications, English language and IT skills, and needed to develop corporate interpersonal skills, yet nearly a fifth of Emirati women wanted to start a business and more than a quarter wanted more family support for their careers.

Respondents complained that split shifts interfered with family commitments, and noted widespread discrimination - particularly when it came to promotion. They called for free training, separate women's departments and moves to eliminate patronage.

In the post-oil era, competition for jobs will intensify. Free-trade agreements are forcing open Arab economies, ending protection for ailing national enterprises. Arab governments are trimming bloated departments and handing over activities to competitive private-sector firms. While new technologies open new opportunities for women, governments must equip future generations with relevant skills.

High average regional birth rates at around 3.5 percent mean that the Arab world is sitting on a population time bomb. A survey in Dubai in 2000 found that illiterate women had twice as many children as female graduates. Encouraging women to work is a way to reduce birth rates while tapping under-used talent.

It cannot be taken for granted that Arab women's rights will evolve naturally. Women who break through the glass ceiling may face renewed hostility in future from men as competition for jobs intensifies. But if women cannot enter the workplace on an equal footing, the prospect of growing poverty among Arab families - that will itself provoke a new cycle of social discontent in generations to come - seems all too real.