(MENAFN- Arab News) The joint study undertaken by Al-Sayedah Khadijah Bint Khuwailid Center of Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Strategy & formerly Booz & Company emphasizes that an environment empowering women's participation in national development is steadily emerging in Saudi Arabia.This is the right move to enable women get more employment or play a bigger role in family businesses.It is my avowed opinion that this will have to continue in a gradual manner as pushing too hard maybe risky prompting a likely backlash.Doing business in Saudi Arabia is somewhat more challenging for women especially due to gender separation.One of the best ways of employing women is to provide separate activities and exclusive facilities. This way the separation of genders can be made more meaningful and easily achieved.Part of what continues to be very necessary for reconciling the roles of women as mothers and professionals will call for greater labor market flexibility.Even the international experience suggests that women are easier to engage in the labor force when there is flexibility both in terms of the number of hours and the scheduling of working time.Working remotely from home is an effective way of achieving this although it creates monitoring challenges. This is one of the things companies will have to consider while offering work online or an electronic platform.In the next five to 10 years a large number of Saudi and GCC family businesses are expected to face a transition to the third generation. This will certainly involve women aspiring for a role in their family entities.Succession planning is one of the most critical challenges that family businesses face but it can also be a great opportunity to draw from the entire talent pool and not the family's male members alone.As female family members become shareholders via inheritance they will tend to request a role in the governance and oversight of the business.It is widely believed that the Kingdom has not created sufficient jobs for women. According to a recent study conducted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) wide disparities in female work force's participation within the GCC exist; 18.2 percent of women in Saudi Arabia are entering the work force compared to 50.8 percent in Qatar at the other end of the spectrum.Much of the change in female employment is likely to be generational. Therefore developing new ways to enable young women to join the labor market will be critical.Secondly in many countries part-time work by students both male and female is in vogue. Whether this suits the Kingdom is for officials to ponder over especially in the matter of engaging the female students. [email protected]

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