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Good practice

Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 Women's Labour Market Reforms

Saudi Arabia · Riyadh · See the Saudi Arabia profile

Vision 2030 reforms lifted female labour participation from 17% (2017) to 36.2% (Q3 2024), exceeding the 30% target. Key measures: driving ban lifted, anti-harassment law, guardianship reform, 12-week maternity leave with pay.

17 %
Female labour force participation (2017)
36.2 %
Female labour force participation (Q3 2024)
43.8 %
Women in senior/middle management (2024)
Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 Women's Labour Market Reforms

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (HRSD)
Period
2016–2030
Keywords
government, labour policy, women's empowerment

Context

Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 agenda, launched 2016, set a target of raising female labour force participation from 17% to 30% by 2030, pursued through reforms including lifting the driving ban (2018), an anti-sexual-harassment law, progressive dismantling of the male guardianship system, and 12-week fully-paid maternity leave.

Results

GASTAT-tracked female labour force participation reached 36.2% in Q3 2024, surpassing the original target by more than six points; women's unemployment fell to a historic low of 10.5% in Q1 2025; women in senior/middle management rose from 28.6% (2017) to 43.8% (2024); women now own approximately 45% of SMEs.

Conclusions

A persistent gender wage gap and uneven cultural uptake across regions remain; Saudi Arabia's Women, Business and the Law 2024 score is 50/100 against a global average of 64.2, indicating further structural gaps.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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