Change is happening in Saudi Arabia and >women are leading the way. This time, it's in the financial sector - the Saudi stock exchange to be exact.
Sarah Al Suhaimi was just appointed as head of the Saudi stock exchange, making international headlines as the first woman to ever chair Tadawul.
Tadawul - which is currently >worth $439 billion - is considered to be the Arab world's largest stock exchange.
At present, Al Suhaimi is the CEO of NCB Capital Co, the investment banking unit of the National Commercial Bank. She was the first female to head a Saudi investment bank when appointed in 2014.
She is expected to keep her position there alongside her new role.
Tadawul first >opened to foreigners in 2015, as part of the country's plans to rely less on oil for its economy.
With the launch of Saudi Vision 2030, the kingdom is looking to enhance its economy with various measures.
Earlier this month, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) --one of the world's largest professional-services firms-- >predicted that Saudi Arabia will have the 13th most powerful economy in the world by 2030, based on its GDP at PPP.
It is expected to remain in that spot by 2050. The kingdom ranked 15th place in 2016.
Others in the financial sector are following Tadawul's lead
Saudi Arabia’s Samba Financial Group soon followed in the footsteps of Tadawul, naming Rania Mahmoud Nashar as CEO.
Nashar would be the second woman to make it to the top of a major finance-industry.
Women in the kingdom are fighting for equality
While it is true that the kingdom is far from being the champion of women's rights, things are changing - especially since the launch of Saudi Vision 2030.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women cannot drive and where women's choices are subject to approval by males.
Still, there have been significant changes.
The number of working women in the kingdom increased by 50 percent between 2010 and 2015, Bloomberg reported.
They are slowly starting to appear across various traditionally male dominated fields that include engineering, finance, entrepreneurship and law.
Four Saudi women were granted licenses to practice law and opened the kingdom's first female law firm in 2014.
In 2002, it was estimated that some $185 billion of cash deposits were owned by Saudi women and some 40 percent of the kingdom's private wealth is in their hands.
A series of reforms in the kingdom are a welcoming change
Saudi Arabia held its first ever >Women’s Day event in the capital of Riyadh earlier this month.
Several women's rights advocates pushing for reforms like the right to drive and freedom from guardianship, spoke at the event including Princess Adila bint Abdullah Al-Saud.
In just the past couple of years, the kingdom has amended a number of laws in an effort to empower its female population.
In 2015, women were granted the right to vote and to participate in municipal elections. Some 18 women won in elections across the kingdom that same year, as Saudi women cast their ballots for the first time in modern history.
Various amendments have also made it possible for women to gain more power in a effort to reform the kingdom's traditional guardianship system.
Women are now required to verbally give their consent before marrying and are also required to receive a copy of their marriage certificate.
The Saudi Shura Council also announced a possible amendment to laws governing travel documents, giving women a right to obtain a passport without male permission.