Saudi Arabia Ranks First in Middle East for Women's Empowerment

• Saudi Arabia topped the Middle East in terms of women's empowerment
• The Kingdom recorded the largest improvement worldwide in "supportive frameworks"
• Saudi Arabia also made progress in the legal frameworks category

As per the World Bank report, Women, Business and the Law 2026, Saudi Arabia has topped the Middle East region in women’s empowerment and achieved the greatest improvement in the world’s supportive frameworks.

The Kingdom has achieved the greatest improvement in points globally in the "supportive frameworks" category and also made progress in the legal frameworks category.

The supportive frameworks metric captures countries’ policies, action plans, and initiatives to ensure the effective implementation of women-related laws.

Women’s empowerment is one of the most important priorities of the Saudi government, particularly the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, in the framework of Vision 2030. The main goal of Vision 2030 is to raise the number of women in the labor market.

In recent years, a number of legislative reforms and changes have been achieved to give women greater importance in Saudi society, enabling them to actively participate in economic, social, scientific, and cultural domains.

Women’s representation in senior and technological positions has also experienced a marked increase, further cementing their position as vital to Vision 2030.

Over 122,000 female job seekers have benefited from the Parallel Training Initiative, which provides specialized training aimed at improving sustainability in the private sector.

The program consists of over 800 training modules, both soft and technical, and has been delivered in partnership with more than 70 training organizations. Over 280,000 certificates have been issued to trainees, which has improved their employability.