During the late 20th and early 21st centuries, women's rights in Saudi Arabia have been limited in comparison to the rights of women in many of its neighboring countries due to Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of sharia law. However, since Mohammed bin Salman was appointed Crown Prince in 2017, a series of social reforms have been witnessed regarding women's rights. In the 2021 World Economic Forum's global gender gap report, the kingdom was ranked 147th out of 156 countries. The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) elected Saudi Arabia to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women for 2018–2022, in a move that was widely criticised by the international community. Female literacy rate is estimated to be 93%. Women in Saudi Arabia constituted 34.4% of the native workforce