It was unexpected but a pleasant surprise for Saudi liberals to hear Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, the interior minister and a staunch conservative, declare in a public conference organized by the Saudi Association for Media and Communication in Riyadh recently that the policy of separating women from men is not a good policy. It is clear from his extended comment that the prince was trying to nudge the women cause towards a more open and liberal public stance.

Among other things, the Prince said “I hope we do not continue to reinforce separation of women in our society. Women have abilities and they can do a great deal and they are not inferior to men. But women also have their own constitution ordained by God, which may not enable them to do certain things. But this does not lessen their role in society, therefore, I hope that we start to work on minimizing separation.” Notice here that the argument regarding women’s role in society and their limitations is taking a biological, rather than the usual theological turn. This is quite a shift from the traditional conservative position. Although the prince pointed out that there are inherent differences between men and women, insinuating that there are jobs fit for men and jobs fit fir women, his comment was clear in giving women a chance to come out of the closet and participate in the workforce. Obviously, this can be achieved only if women were allowed to appear in public and mix with men and relax restrictions on veiling and segregation.

The discussion now in the intellectual salons of Riyadh is whether this is a shift in the prince’s personal position, who, till recently, stood vehemently against women driving cars, or whether he is being pressured by the ruling establishment to moderate his position to tally with the official trend of giving more freedom to women.

The brute facts of life, which come as the result of inevitable demographic and economic changes, are forcing all conservative quarters in Saudi Arabia, including the political and religious establishments, to take a second look at their entrenched traditional positions of holding fast to inherited values. There is a growing sense that deliberate, planned change is the only way to preserve the status quo and adjust to internal and external pressures. The issue now is not whether to change or not to change; change is necessary. The issue is rather how to graduate change and plan it so that it does not come too sudden and cause chaos but not too late after things get out of hand.

When it comes to the issue of women, the government spends a great deal of money on women education and more than 50% of university graduates are women. But this is somehow a loosing investment. Of the Saudi nationals, totaling slightly over 3 millions of the 8 million workers in the kingdom, only around 25% are women. This low percentage of women employment is coupled with very low pay and very unstable working conditions. Women, especially in the private sector, are much easier to be dismissed by their employers. Their weak social position makes it very difficult for them to lodge complaints or demand justice. Furthermore, due to the lack of public transportation and to the fact that women are barred from driving, a workingwoman would have to buy her own car and hire her own driver. This would cost her more than the money her job would pay her.

Less than 40% of the working force in Saudi Arabia is Saudi nationals. This is one the challenges facing the Saudi government. The magnitude of the problem can be imagined when we realize that one third of the population is under the age of 14 and three quarters is under 30. The population will double by the year 2050.

The government realizes that this demographic shift will put a tremendous strain on the economy. All these mouths need to be fed and employed. Through the Ministry of labor, the government launched its Saudization program in 2004. The aim of the program is to replace expatriates in the Saudi workforce with young Saudi graduates. Part of this program was to broaden the local human resource pool by encouraging greater participation of women in the workforce and provide more opportunities for women employment in various sectors, in addition to education and health services already available to them now. Among the goals of the current five-year economic plan is to encourage the employment of women by the government and private sectors.

This government policy was met with some resistance by the private sector, which did not show readiness to employ women. The motive behind this resistance was commercial rather than religious. Merchants were afraid that the Saudi public, despite the clamors of few liberals, was not ready for such move. Not too many Saudis were willing to employ their women as sale ladies, for example. Nor were the Saudi customers ready yet to bargain with and buy from sale ladies.

There are, however, some banks and companies who are eager to employ women in order to meet the Saudi quota of Saudi employees demanded by the Ministry of Labor. Lack of qualified Saudi men with the proper training to fill certain positions reserved for Saudi nationals is forcing some companies to broaden their search base to include women. But this is a costly enterprise, since employing women means having to set up for them separate offices fully equipped to segregate them from men. This is sort of duplicating the company’s infrastructure, which is a costly arrangement.

In light of all this, many analysts look at Naif's comment in the context of the government’s effort to energize momentum and push for more progress on the issue of Saudization and women’s employment. Others see it, coming specifically from Prince Naif, as a signal to the clerics to ease some of their reservations on the integration of women in the Saudi workforce, a goal that cannot be achieved without changing the traditional social and religious attitude towards women’s role in society. Naif is lining up with the political elite in endorsing the integration of women in public life. It is now the turn of society to change and accept this new reality.

What gives special significance to the comment by the minister of interior, according to some, is the fact that it came out during the same week that King Abdullah issued a royal decree appointing, for the first time in the history of the kingdom, a female to be the chancellor of the women university in Riyadh. This one of the biggest women university in the Kingdom with an enrollment of more than 62 thousands female students registered in 32 colleges with three more colleges on the way for science, computer science and public administration. The minister of education picked up the cue and now his ministry is seriously considering making similar appointments in the women universities and colleges spread throughout the country.

The new female chancellor is princess al-Jawharah bint Fahad b. Muhammad b. Abdurrahman b. Saud. Contentious spirits view her appointment as a flagrant example of nepotism, being a member of the royal family. The moderates think it is the right thing to do since only a princes with a clout could handle such a delicate position and be able to further the women cause for which she is to blaze the trail.

It is a good thing that the Saudi government is realizing at last the importance of addressing the issue of women education and employment and the role of women in society. But such issues cannot be successfully dealt with in isolation and piecemeal. The whole gender question and the relationship between men and women must be brought to the front burner, including the right of women in the court, the home and the workplace. Without jural and social equality, education and employment could only result in unfulfilled expectations, which, in turn, could lead to frustration and disenchantment.