Number of women up in GCC workforce
dubai — The total number of working women in the workforce across the GCC has shown significant improvement in recent years, with female participation in the UAE going from 34 per cent in 2000 to 46 per cent in 2014, a new study has shown.
However, while great strides have been made in improving women participation, there is a lot of work still to be done in the GCC, says Leila Hoteit, partner and managing director at BCG Middle East.
Highlighting the findings of ‘How organisations in the Middle East can stretch their diversity spend’ by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), she revealed that gender inequality creates an average global income loss of 13.5 per cent. This figure is the lowest in Europe at 10 per cent and the highest in the Middle East and North Africa at 27 per cent.
Hoteit noted that the increase in women’s workforce participation in the UAE has been accompanied by an increase in the female unemployment rate. This is partially driven by higher education attainment that was not matched by an increase in relevant opportunities in the labour market.
“We want to encourage women to look at fields that have traditionally been seen as male-dominated,” she said. “A lot of women go into areas of study such as humanities because they feel that they are more female-friendly, but these
We want to encourage women to look at fields that have been seen as male-dominated Leila Hoteit, partner and managing director at BCG Middle East
don’t necessarily mean they will find jobs once they graduate. We need women to go into sciences and look at careers in fields such as technology and engineering.”
When it comes to companies focusing on integrating more women into their workforce, there are a lot of factors that need to be addressed, she added. “It’s not just about getting women into the workforce, it’s about retaining them and then helping them create careers where they go on to positions of leadership, and that in turn attracts other women to those roles. Women want to see positive role models that are a reflection of themselves — they want to see wives and mothers so they know there is a future for them that does not end when they have to take time off to start a family.”
BCG’s report also shared six actions that can be taken to empower women in the workforce including: setting gender diversity as a strategic objective; ensuring engagement of the senior leadership and the middle management; fostering the retention of high-potential women; promoting the development of women; advocating for women in leadership; and ensuring fairness and the removal of conscious or unconscious biases.
— rohma@khaleejtimes.com