Women in Saudi Arabia are racing to become train drivers
An announcement by a railway company in Saudi Arabia of 30 new jobs for women sparked a lot of interest after the state relaxed work rules for women and the company received more than 28,000 resumes.
The Saudi-based Spanish railway company, Renfe, said that online assessments of academic and English skills have reduced the number of candidates by about half, and the remaining nominations will be considered by mid-March.
Women who get jobs will drive high-speed trains between the cities of Mecca and Medina after a year of paid training.
Currently, the company employs 80 mechanics, and another 50 are in the study phase.
Until recently, only women in Saudi Arabia were allowed to work in education or medicine. In 2018, they received the right to drive a car.
Over the past five years, the number of working women in the country has doubled and reached 33%. In the third quarter of 2021, the proportion of working Saudi women was about half of the number of working men, however, the unemployment rate among women was three times higher than that of men – 21.9%.
