UAE should ‘shift gender discourse’, says Al Gurg
Businesses in the United Arab Emirates should change the way they discuss gender, according to prominent business leader, Dr Raja Easa Al Gurg.
The managing director of the Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group and president of the Dubai Business Women Council delivered the keynote speech at a DBWC Best Practices Forum about gender balance and diversity in organisations to mark International Women’s Day in March.
She said: “We need to shift the discourse of gender equality to a genderless one. Or one dominated by business rationale, where gender means all genders and all of us as we are today, and where empowerment implies the releases of potential.
“Equality and diversity should be perceived as a means to engagement, better performance and innovation. This is not a ‘nice to have’ but an absolutely must have.”
Al Gurg added that gender balance – or “gender intelligence”, as she preferred to call it – would only be realised if women themselves knew what to do with their talents.
She said: “We have to believe in ourselves. We have to believe in our skills and we have to find those skills within ourselves and really nurture them. Every one of us has got that leadership skill inside us, but how to bring it to the surface – that is your job as a woman.”
The forum, entitled Gender Balanced Leadership for Innovation and Change, was co-organised by DBWC, the University of Wollongong in Dubai, and the United Nations Development Programme.
Moderated by Dr Payyazhi Jayashree of UOWD, the panel included the executive vice president, general counsel and company secretary at Emirates NBD, Lubna Qassim; the CEO of Societe Generale in the Middle East, Richard Soundardjee; the CEO of Philips Middle East and Turkey, Dr Arjen Radder; country manager – head of HR at Barclays, Andrew Mortimer; and the UAE country president and finance director for India, Middle East and Africa at Dow Chemical Co, Moosa Al Moosa.
United Nations Development Programme resident representative, Frode Mauring, also spoke at the event.