When Rawan al-Harbi graduated in 2017, she had expected to end up working in the female-dominated education sector. Instead, she found an opening at Johnson Controls Arabia, an air-conditioning plant in King Abdullah Economic City, 100km to the north of Jeddah.
“At the beginning it was a bit hard. It’s a far-out location and everything is new,” the 29-year-old said on the factory floor. “But I got used to it.”
Today she is one of more than a dozen Saudi women working in the electrical and control department, sitting on workbenches across the room from male colleagues.
As the men solder components, the women cut and crimp the colourful wires that go into rooftop units and chillers used to cool big buildings frazzled by the desert sun.
The scene would have been unthinkable a decade ago.
Many freedoms accorded to women elsewhere remain forbidden in Saudi Arabia. Women are still required to obtain the consent of their male guardian to get married in most cases, and it remains difficult for them to initiate divorce. Rights groups have also criticised the practice of men receiving a larger share of the proceeds of inheritances than women.
But Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s push to diversify the economy and modernise society has made the female presence in many aspects of daily life increasingly common. That includes spaces such as factories, once exclusively the preserve of men.
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