BUSINESS NEWS LESSONS

Improved professional prospects for

women in Saudi Arabia
1 Warmer

Discuss the questions in pairs.

1. What is the approximate balance of women to men in your company or department? Are there more
men than women, or more women than men?

2. Is the balance similar throughout all levels of your workplace or company? E.g. At your level? At entry
level into the company? At management level?

3. Is this typical for your line of business?

2 Key words

Find the words in the article that match the definitions below. Use the section numbers to help you.

1. experts or professional people whose job it is to give help and advice on a particular subject (para 1)

2. describes something created for the purpose of giving advice (para 1)

3. going somewhere in large numbers (para 1)

4. make someone gradually stop depending on something that they like and have become used to (two
words, phrasal verb, para 1)

5. experienced people who help someone who has less experience, especially in their job (para 3)

6. someone who is legally responsible for another person (para 8)

7. people who have the same job or purpose as another person (para 8)

8. make rules, controls, conditions, etc. less strict (para 12)

9. completely change a system in order to make it work more effectively (para 12)

10. changes that are intended to correct a situation that is wrong or unfair (para 13)

11. gave someone a particular job or position (para 16)

12. opinions or feelings about something, especially shown by a change in people’s behaviour (para 18)
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 BUSINESS NEWS LESSONS
Saudi women push to expand
consulting leadership opportunities
BY AHMED AL OMRAN
1 Consultants for western business advisory companies
have been flocking to Saudi Arabia — particularly
since 2016, when Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman launched his economic reform plan. His
aim was to wean the kingdom off its dependence on
oil revenues.
2 The consultants are mostly foreign men who enjoy
advantages rarely open to Tala al-Jabri, a Saudi
woman who set out eight years ago to build a career
as a consultant. “Even for translation jobs — since
many government clients in the kingdom require
reports to be in Arabic — we were told all the
translators must be men,” she says.
3 Many clients, especially in the government, did
not want to deal with women. Furthermore, few
companies in the region had female partners or
women in senior positions who could serve as
mentors or role models.
4 Ms Jabri, now 30, grew up in the coastal city of
Jeddah. She studied finance at McGill University in
Canada as part of a Saudi government scholarship
programme sending students abroad. Most of these
students return to seek work in the kingdom and the
Gulf region.
5 “Top consulting firms in my time would hire a
legion of men but you would rarely see a Saudi
female consultant in any client-facing role,” says Ms
Jabri. She has worked at organisations including
management consultancy Oliver Wyman and
professional services firm Accenture.
6 Currently dividing her time between Riyadh and Abu
Dhabi, her most recent career step has been to move
from consulting to a new path as a venture capital
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investor, including work for SoftBank’s Vision Fund.
7 Her first big break, she says, came in 2015 when she
was hired by Dow Chemical as head of government
strategy and markets. She was determined to prove
herself in a role that allowed her to work with senior
government officials, as the US company expanded
Published by Macmillan Education Ltd. © Macmillan Education Limited, 2020.
its presence in the kingdom following a $20bn joint
venture with state oil company Saudi Aramco.
8 Restrictions placed on Saudi women wishing to
develop a business career have included strict
guardianship rules. Women needed permission from
a male guardian to travel abroad or obtain a passport,
which often limited their chances to compete with
male counterparts.
9 Saudi Arabia did not allow women to drive until 2018.
Until recently, gender segregation has been the rule in
most workplaces.
10 “In consulting, it’s a very team-centred design and
so there are so many touch points with the team
throughout the week. Every day you sit together for
roughly 12 hours,” Ms Jabri says.
11 But there were many cases in her career in Saudi
Arabia, “where I would need to work in a different
room, and it takes away from how consulting works”.
12 That has gradually changed, with the kingdom
seeking to relax restrictions on women and grant
them more rights as part of the crown prince’s plan to
overhaul the economy and modernise society.
13 Female unemployment remains high at 30.8 per cent,
according to latest government data. But the World
Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2020 report
has praised Saudi Arabia for reforms advancing
women’s economic participation. They no longer
require permission from a male guardian to travel
abroad or obtain a passport.
14 The portion of the Saudi workforce made up of
women rose from 17.7 per cent in 2016 to 26 per cent
at the end of last year. The government’s target is 30
per cent by 2030.
15 Ms Jabri notes positive signs. “It’s so crazy now when
you go to government offices and you just see men
and women mixing and exchanging ideas, especially
younger generations,” she says.
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 BUSINESS NEWS LESSONS

16 At the same time, the number of women in
leadership positions remains limited. Saudi Arabia
appointed its first female ambassador last year when
Princess Reema bint Bandar was named envoy to the
US, but there are no female cabinet-level ministers.
17 As well as there being too few role models for Saudi
women, says Ms Jabri, a key problem is “raising
awareness around those remarkable women who are
doing non-traditional gender roles”.
18 “Here in Saudi we have an amazing opportunity,” she
says, noting that new attitudes are gathering strength
among women in their twenties and thirties.
19 “I think young millennials and Gen Z are coming up
believing that they can conquer the world,” she adds.
“And that is exactly the right approach.”

Ahmed Al Omran, May 1 2020

Copyright The Financial Times.
All rights reserved. Articles republished from the
Financial Times.

3 Understanding the article

a. Without referring back to the article, read the statements and decide whether they are true
or false.

b. Rewrite any that are false to make them true according to the information given in the article.

1. The main aim of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salam’s economic reform plan of 2016 was to
increase Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil revenues.

2. In recent years, it has been difficult for young businesswomen to find female role models or women
in higher positions who could coach new employees.

3. In the consultancy business in Saudi Arabia, it is a common practice among organisations to

specifically employ women for face-to-face consultations with clients.

4. Saudi Arabian women still require permission from a male guardian to travel abroad or obtain a
passport which limits their chances of getting on in business.

5. Due to the kingdom relaxing restrictions on women and granting them more rights, 30% of the
Saudi workforce is now women.

6. Ms Jabari believes that it is a very positive sign how many of the new generation of Saudi women
are of the opinion that they can substantially change the roles for women.
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 BUSINESS NEWS LESSONS

4 Business language – word pairs or phrases

a. Complete the word pair or phrase starting in Column A by using words from the word pool and
adding them to Column B.

b. In pairs, find the word pairs or phrases in the article to check your answers and tell each other
what each one means.

c. Think of an example sentence using the word pair or phrase that is relevant to your life and
write it in Column C.

break  capital  ministers  points  programme  role  segregation  venture

Column A Column B Column C

1. client-facing role My brother has a client-facing role at work so he usually wears a suit
to give a professional impression.
2. venture    

3. big

4. scholarship

5. joint    

6. gender    

7. touch    

8. cabinet-level    
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 BUSINESS NEWS LESSONS

5 Business Language - Using the key words

a. Use some of the key words from task 2 to complete these statements.

1. Our company recently a new CEO.

2. towards employees working from home have changed recently.

3. There have been important recently in the way we work.

4. Management plans to the company’s pension contribution scheme.

5. We usually hire to advise us on any major changes.

b. Now say whether the statements are true or false for your workplace.

6 Discussion questions

• Should companies introduce a ‘positive gender bias’ in order to hire more women and promote women
into leadership roles?

• Should governments be required to have a 50-50 balance of men and women in minister roles
and positions?

7 Wider business theme – Business etiquette

Consider the scenario described by your teacher. Discuss the questions and write a handy but
tactful list of dos and don’ts for foreign business partners in that situation.

1. What should visitors from other countries know about gender-related business etiquette in your
country? E.g. Is there any particular way in which men and women should be greeted for the first time?

2. Does it matter who is greeted first, or is there an order that should be followed?

3. What should they know about the differences for physical contact and personal space between men
and women?

4. Is there anything that visitors should wear or not wear? Is the way to dress different for men
and women?
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5. What gifts are appropriate and what would not be appropriate?

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