INVESTING IN WOMEN KEY TO EQUITABLE RECOVERY, EXPERTS SAY

▶ Training initiatives set to help the UAE build back better after Covid

Initiatives to equip women with new skills will help the UAE economy achieve an equitable and inclusive recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, according to officials, entrepreneurs and professionals.

Such initiatives are among the ways to further improve gender equality in the workplace, particularly during the pandemic, they said.

They include training programmes for women returning to the workforce after having children, easier access to capital for female entrepreneurs and a campaign to convince girls to take up science, technology, engineering and maths subjects.

They also include programmes to equip women with the skills needed to join highgrowth sectors.

“Workplaces should have specific tracks for women to progress into executive positions,” said Dr Hawaa Al Mansouri, deputy medical director, consultant endocrinologist and diabetologist at the Imperial College London Diabetes Centre.

“Things are ripe here for females, in particular, to take leadership positions.”

International Women’s Day is celebrated today, about a year after the Covid-19 pandemic triggered lockdowns around the world to curb the spread of the virus.

The health crisis threatens to widen gender gaps and erase progress made by women in improving their economic opportunities, according to the International Monetary Fund.

In the UAE, particularly in Abu Dhabi, the focus has been on attracting skilled talent and retraining other workers, said Tariq bin Hendi, director general of the Abu Dhabi Investment Office.

He said many women had been disproportionately affected by the pandemic in countries that relied on blue-collar workers.

“This is a testament to what we are doing in Abu Dhabi in building industries that rely on intellect, on white-collar labour and all the programmes that come with that,” he said.

“How do you upskill? How do you provide new opportunities for a woman in a blue-collar job to move into a white-collar employment? This goes back to our focus on high-skilled jobs [to] ensure that people who want to pursue them are upskilled in the right way and provided with the right education.”

According to a Deloitte survey released in December last year, about 82 per cent of women around the world said they were negatively affected by the pandemic, with their workloads having increased significantly.

Dr Narjess Boubakri, dean of the School of Business Administration at the American University of Sharjah, said more public and private spending is needed on services such as education, childcare and elderly support services.

This is expected to counter the effects of the pandemic and prevent women from leaving the job market permanently, she said.

Dr Al Mansouri, a mother of two, said her employer instructed her to work from home when the pandemic began, to minimise the risk to her newborn child.

The Emirati doctor, who was awarded the prestigious Presidential Scholarship to study in the US in 1999 and became the first non-American woman to graduate from the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, said she never felt more supported as a working mother amid the pandemic.

“For women who are professionals in health care, what Covid did is further underline that there is nothing negative being a female professional with kids. It is seen as ‘wow, this is something to be praised and supported’,” she said.

“The beauty of this culture is that we are very family-oriented – whether you are a resident or a foreigner, there is always that support to family and understanding that you have more responsibilities.”

Dr Lina Yousef, an assistant professor of Chemistry at Khalifa University, moved to the UAE capital because of its diversity and the safety it affords women.

“Being around great minds was very attractive for me, tech and science were very new in the UAE, so there were tremendous opportunities for growth, especially for someone early in their career, and the compensation was great compared to other places,” she said.

The beauty of this culture is that we are very familyoriented – whether you are a resident or not, there is always support

DR HAWAA AL MANSOURI Endocrinologist and diabetologist