When the clock struck midnight on June 24, the Saudi woman put her hand on the car steering wheeling, marking a landmark moment in the Kingdom’s history. Saudis woke up the next morning to a day similar to any other. They headed to work and went about their daily lives very normally. The same streets that have been driven on by men for decades are now being driven on by women and nothing has changed. The drivers quickly grew accustomed to the situation, exceeding expectations. Observers would be led to believe that women have been driving for years, not a mere number of days or hours. Women got behind the wheel and drove themselves to work and went about their daily lives. It is as if the day that preceded the end of the driving ban was the same as the one after it. Matters progressed very smoothly and the Saudis proved that they are able to accept landmark decisions, whether on the social or economic levels, should the timing be right. The Saudi government was always a step ahead of the society. It knows its needs and demands. It waits a long time, but in the end, it meets those demands according to critical balances and equations. The secret always lay in the timing. Of course, there will always be someone who will claim that since women’s introduction to driving took place so smoothly, why wasn’t this decision taken two or ten years ago? The answer will be: Who said that had such a decision been taken in the past, it would have been so positively received as it is now? Of course, no one can make such a guarantee and we reiterate that the secret lies in the timing. Certainly, women being allowed to drive is not an insignificant development for them in a country such as Saudi Arabia. It is not so much a luxury as it is a deep need that was confirmed by the submission of over 120,000 driver’s license requests when the announcement was made that the ban would end. The majority of Saudi society proved that it was open to change and that the current phase was the right time for it. At this point, we must not overlook the fact that women being able to drive is only a part of a grander project that falls within Vision 2030 that aims to increase the number of women in the workforce from 22 to 30 percent in 2030. The same plans hopes to ensure that women contribute to 30 percent of the income in their families. The economic diversification that Saudi Arabia is working on and the national transformation program both rely on the full participation of women. All those programs and plans could not be executed if they are not allowed to drive. Sunday was a historic day for the entire Saudi society, not just its women. When the government allowed them to drive, it gave them a choice and did not dictate an order. Nearly half of Saudi society is comprised of women, who now have the complete right to drive. Women have the choice to either get behind the wheel or not. We should point out that all the historic decisions issued by King Salman bin Abdulaziz over the past three-and-a-half years, and which have been closely followed up on by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, are part of a package of a greater project. They are not small plans that are separate from one another and perhaps what sets them apart, besides their historic significance, is that after their implementation, they were positively received by society in a way that no one predicted. This is an equation that rarely succeeds in the world and Saudi Arabia set itself apart when it achieved this feat.