Saudi Female Entrepreneurs: Business Motivations and Commitment to Solving Women’s Social Issues

There are many rules governing women’s professional opportunities in Saudi Arabia; the Ministry of Labor has a set of rules that women are required to follow regarding social and religious expectations. For instance, women cannot work in places where men are employed which limit the job opportunities for women to two significant fields, education and medicine, where women must work in separate schools or medical facilities from men. According to the Saudi Central Department of Statistics & Information, the unemployment rate of Saudi female college graduates is 54%, while the Saudi male college graduate unemployment rate is 23%. Eighty percent of unemployed women in Saudi Arabia have earned a bachelor’s degree (Alharbi, 2010)