(MENAFN- Arab News) No dignified profession should be off limits to women in the Kingdom as the number of qualified female graduates is growing at a rapid pace as is the demand for female workers in women-only establishments.

The demand for Saudi saleswomen security guards and waitresses at restaurants is on the rise in particular.

According to a study most females agree that their acceptance or rejection of a particular job offer or impulse to work depends on the financial needs.

Shaikah Al-Dahailan an employee and post-graduate student said she did not mind working as a waitress in a restaurant. ''If I were in need of money I would accept any kind of job even though I am now a university graduate."

She pointed out that female students in the US and Europe were working in restaurants for low wages but that they got tips that were worth more than their salaries. She added that Saudi women working in such jobs should be respected because it is a means of earning one's own livelihood without relying on others.

Samar Al-Murri a graduate and housewife said that a female waiter should have studied hotel and hospitality studies and should have an elegant personality in order to best perform her job whilst another post-graduate student Salma Al-Wabari said that she did not object to Saudi women working as waiters yet she would not herself accept such restaurant work because her educational field is education.

Another graduate Iman Kanaan said that women's acceptance of restaurant jobs actually helps them contribute to a widening of the ideological and societal perspective and expectations of a girl and her family.

However most of the female participants in the study attributed the general refusal to accept the idea of Saudi women working as waitresses to social customs and taboos. The social approach toward waitresses today is generally pity rather than respect and appreciation as the job is often associated with poverty and not dignity or freedom.

However one secondary student Arwa Al-Sharidah noted that she would like to be a waitress because it enabled a woman to serve the people and because she feels it could teach her how to patiently interact with customers of different tastes and respond to their needs.

Mariyam Salman an education supervisor approved of a Saudi woman who might choose the work of a waitress if her family traditions did not object and she needed the financial gains.

On the other hand Umm Muhammad who is an owner of a women's coffee house is not at all optimistic about the prospects for Saudi waitresses. ''Saudi women could not continue as waitresses because the working hours required will not suit them. That is why I abandoned the idea of appointing Saudi women and returned to my old practice of recruiting Filipino waitresses'' she said.

Fatimah a former waitress explained why she abandoned her job as a waitress previously. ''I had to leave the job because I could not adapt myself to the job and I was haunted by a feeling that I had no future in that field. I was also ashamed to tell others that I worked as a waitress even though the customers never treated me with disrespect. I never accepted tips because I was being paid for my job and I felt that accepting tips would remind me of my poverty.''

Director of the Family Development Center in Al-Ahsa Khaled Al-Halibi said that a Saudi can work as a waitress ''if the cafe is females-only and offers only lawful services. No unlawful practices can take place such as playing obscene music or television channels or smoking shisha and tobacco. Additionally the guardian of the woman must have no objection to her presence there and the woman must wear Shariah-approved clothes only'. He added that the work would be as dignified as the profession of nurses or workers in women's schools.

Businesswoman Munirah Al-Shenaifi feels that most Saudi women have a distaste for the job of a waitress even if she has no objection to being a cook or saleswoman.

She said she opened a number of women's coffee shops in universities and that she offered training for a number of Saudi women to work as waitresses there. But their training did not succeed because of social disapproval and so she had to employ expatriate women instead of Saudis. She added that Saudi women did not have any objections to working as security personnel plumbers messengers or saleswomen.

However businesswoman Madawi Al-Hasoun said the employment goal for Saudi women should be to place her within honorable professions. ''Even though no work without dignity we hope for progress and advancement in the female workforce so that they can explore arenas where they get more profitable positions than that of waitresses. We need to produce a generation of female youth who realize the value of work and who choose advanced professions that put them at a higher level of financial status' she asserted.