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Before recently, 25-year-old Ali’s only transportation experience consisted of driving around her hometown of Jeddah in the family sedan because Saudi women were only granted the privilege to drive in 2018.
But last year, she was one of the 28,000 applicants competing for one of the 32 positions available for female drivers on the Haramain High Speed Railway, which travels at up to 300 kph (186 mph) along the 450-kilometer (280-mile) route between the holy towns of Mecca and Medina.
Since 2016, Saudi women’s employment has increased from 17% to 37%, a more than double increase. Saudi women have a high unemployment rate of 20,5%, compared to Saudi men’s unemployment rate of 4.3 percent last year.
According to Saudi economist Meshal Alkhowaiter, “the goal has changed from encouraging women to enter the workforce to finding enough opportunities to hire the thousands of Saudi women joining the labor each quarter.”
