Women’s Legal Empowerment in Employment in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Legal empowerment is an approach adopted by international organisations, civil society groups, and governments interested in development to improve the lives of the disadvantaged. In KSA, women's employment status warrants attention, as the country has consistently shown low female participation in the economy for decades. The situation is currently evolving due to new legal reforms that promote women's access to employment across various sectors, a development considered culturally revolutionary. This paper advocates examining the situation from a socio-legal perspective and proposes legal empowerment strategies as alternatives to the traditional rule-of-law orthodoxy. It particularly emphasises understanding Saudi women's agency and explores how they can effectively engage with the law to advocate for the promotion of their rights and interests. It employs the CLEP’s framework, feminist and developmental approaches towards women’s legal empowerment, recognising that legal reforms alone are insufficient to encourage women's full participation in the workforce. The study proposes strategies to empower women to overcome legal, cultural, and social barriers. The research is grounded in primary data collected through a survey, which investigated Saudi women’s employment experiences, needs, challenges, and aspirations. The findings identify key legal empowerment strategies that most effectively enhance women’s economic participation. These include continued legal reforms, the promotion of women's education, increased awareness of legal rights and societal responsibilities, and improved access to legal and financial training and support. Additionally, the thesis highlights the importance of promoting personal agency and self-awareness among women to address KSA’s persistent low ranking in global indices for women’s economic participation, despite recent efforts. This study argues that a legal empowerment approach tailored to the socio-cultural context of KSA can meaningfully help overcome persistent barriers and advance gender equality in the economic sphere.