Why it is an ‘exciting time’ for women in Saudi Arabia

Despite this, there are far too few female corporate leaders, said Al Mozaini, who was speaking at Arabian Business’s inaugural KSA Women Excellence Awards in Riyadh on Monday.

“The higher you go up the corporate ladder, the more you realise how lonely it is and how very few women there are. This is why I created the institute,” she said.

Al Mozaini’s ambitions for the institute do not halt with the Saudi Arabia chapter as she outlined plans for regional expansion.

“After it is well established in the kingdom, we plan to open chapters across the GCC and MENA because the challenges women face are the same across all the countries in the region,” said Al Mozaini.

“Once that expands and say in ten years, my plan is to never talk about women again. We just want to talk about society – I don’t want to see anymore gender gaps in our country or others,” she continued.

Al Mozaini outlined three main pillars for nusf, Arabic for half, the first of which is the equip programme which trains women in corporate soft skills such as negotiation and leadership.

“Saudi women have high technical skills but not enough experience in soft skills,” she said.

The second pillar is the research component aimed at focusing and quantifying the gaps or what is preventing women from being active participants in their own economy, explained Al Mozaini.

“The third one is the connect pillar which is perhaps the hardest to manage. Social barriers get in the way of women advancing. We need to resolve our own issues and address them, whatever they are,” she said.

Nusf has several initiatives around this pillar, including a podcast, to highlight the social barriers and pathways to resolving them.

“Women cannot advance if they don’t have the support of society, especially the men. It should not be us versus them,” said Al Mozaini.

“We need to recognise the male champions who are supporting women,” she added.

Arabian Business’s KSA Women’s Excellence Awards were launched in February to celebrate the journey of women in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which continues to be an inspiring story for all, a spirit of entrepreneurship, innovation and excellence that evolves day by day.

Since that day, Arabian Business has received a flood of nominations across 13 different categories which seek to recognise the achievements of inspiring women across a diverse number of fields.

After a tough judging process with so many deserving cases, at a glittering evening at the Riyadh Marriott on Mother’s Day with an audience of more than 150 attendees, the winners were revealed.