SAUDI ARABIA: 28,000 WOMEN APPLY FOR 30 POSITIONS AS TRAIN DRIVERS

Women drivers absorb final lessons at Riyadh Par Mall.

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Thu 17 February 2022:

A job advertising in Saudi Arabia for 30 female train drivers drew 28,000 applicants, demonstrating the scale of unmet demand as the kingdom expands its prospects for women.

Renfe, the Spanish railway operator, said on Wednesday that an online assessment of academic background and English language skills had helped it decrease the number of candidates by almost half, and that the remaining candidates will be worked through by mid-March.

After a year of paid training, the 30 selected women will drive bullet trains between Mecca and Medina.

Renfe, which has stated that it is ready to develop possibilities for women in its local business, presently employs 80 men in Saudi Arabia to operate its trains, with another 50 on the way.

Saudi women’s job prospects were formerly limited to occupations such as teachers and medical personnel due to strict gender segregation regulations. Until 2018, women were not allowed to drive in the kingdom.

Female participation in the workforce has nearly doubled in the last five years to 33 percent amid a drive by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to open up the kingdom and diversify the economy, and women are now taking up jobs once restricted to men and migrant workers.

However, in the third quarter of last year, the proportion of women working in the kingdom was still roughly half that of males, at 34.1 percent, and female unemployment was more than three times that of men, at 21.9 percent.

Saudi Arabia is highlighting progress on gender issues at a time when the country’s human rights record is being scrutinized in the West, including a crackdown on dissent that resulted in the arrest of dozens of women’s rights activists and the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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