etween the vulnerability of impoverished women to underemployment and low returns on labor, especially since most employed women are part of the informal economy. Economic empowerment projects usually focus on income-generating activities, which allow women to independently acquire their income. Income-generating activities encompass a wide range of areas, such as small business promotion, cooperatives, job creation schemes, sewing circles and credit and savings groups. One of the most popular forms of economic empowerment for women is microfinance, which provides credit for impoverished women who are usually excluded from formal credit institutions. Microfinance enables poor women to become economic agents of change by increasing their income and productivity, access to markets and information, and decision-making power. Offering women a source of credit has been found to be a very successful strategy for alleviating poverty because it enhances the productivity of their own small enterprises and the income-generating activities in which they invest.empowerment provides incentives to change the patterns of traditional behavior to which a woman is bound as a dependent member of the household. More and more programming has taken an integrated approach, involving other aspects of development into microfinance projects in order to increase a women s income and create a positive change in her perception of health and education . overall results show an impressive common denominator: the female and male voices in the study are cosmopolitan, confident and hugely optimistic about gender equity. They are ambitious and look forward to an interesting work life and raising smaller families. Family is paramount, religion is treasured and tradition is respected though not perpetuated by all.further analysis reveals potential dark clouds. Women have much fewer job preparedness skills than their male colleagues, making their struggle both ideologically and pragmatically harder than for men to achieve employment. Women s access to the job market is a thorny issue, but still one of the biggest and most pressing challenges confronting Saudi Arabia s segregated society. 78% of the female Saudi students consider a successful career as part of their life plan - in the context of a society operating on rigid perceptions and allocation of roles - this is a small revolution. The high unemployment is, however, a serious problem and inauspicious, not only regarding the participation of women, it is a risk factor in respect to the country s inner stability. Only 54% of the Saudi respondents expect to find a job after graduation. Within only a few decades, the Emirates have made the leap from living in desert tents to the glistening glass skyscrapers of their new metropolises. Seventy percent of the total respondents - both men and wom...
