UAE employers are urged to rethink their reluctance to hire women who are well-educated and have work experience and children to look after. Mothers tell of their struggles in finding positions that offer child-friendly hours, day-care, or allow parents to work from home.
ABU DHABI // Mothers have spoken about their struggles to find a part-time job or one with flexible hours when they want to return to work after having a child.
Many found employers to be too rigid when it came to offering accommodating hours or working from home, while the part-time jobs that are available were too few or poorly paid.
Nour Ahmad, who has a master’s degree in business administration, worked at a company in Dubai until she gave birth.
She decided to quit her job because the legal maternity leave period of 45 days was too short for her to bond with her baby, and the working hours were too long.
“I stayed with my daughter for three years, and now I have been looking for a job for a year and a half,” said Ms Ahmad.
“I have never found a good part-time job that can cover my basic monthly expenses. The three-year gap has made it impossible for me to be hired again.”
Ms Ahmad, who has stopped looking for a job, said it was disappointing that she could not find part-time work despite her work experience and education.
Likewise, Nida, a housewife with a two-year-old child, has been struggling to find a job that offers a good work-life balance. “Coming from Canada, part-time work is a concept that’s a win-win for employees and employers,” she said.
“Employees work according to their availability and, as such, employers don’t have to extend full benefits to part-timers. Here, I see many posts on Facebook groups where stay-at-home mums are desperate to work but to no avail.”
Kinza Sajjad Naqvi left her job as a financial analyst after her daughter’s birth. She, too, spent many hours searching for suitable employment when she was ready to return to work.
“During my third trimester, I was desperately looking up companies that encourage working from home, part-time work, flexible working hours or ones that provide day-care facilities on-site,” she said. “But I was disappointed because nothing was available.”
Emma, a British expatriate in Abu Dhabi, said she felt mothers were being excluded from the workforce because of the lack of part-time jobs and flexibility among employers.
“There are thousands of mums in the UAE just like me,” she said. “Highly qualified to postgraduate level, motivated, smart women who were valued in their home countries for the skills they brought to the workplace are effectively barred from working here because of long hours and lack of short-term childcare options, especially for older children.”
Two years ago, Emma was teaching and training healthcare professionals at a British university, as well as working in a hospital.
“I did go for one interview here [in the UAE] at a rehabilitation hospital, but they wanted me to work from 8am to 6pm, six days a week,” she said.
For employers, part-time work was not a consideration, she said.
“Many women I know here, unable to find jobs compatible with family life, are choosing to take online study courses with the intent of using these new skills when they return to their home countries,” Emma said.
“But wouldn’t it be better if they were welcomed into the workplace instead? Surely it’s better for the long-term productivity of a nation to harness all the talent sitting unused on its doorstep rather than continually recruiting from overseas?”
newsdesk@thenational.ae
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The Penguin
Starring: Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz
Creator: Lauren LeFranc
Rating: 4/5
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE
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Director: Shawn Levy
Rating: 3/5
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The specs: 2018 Audi Q5/SQ5
Price, base: Dh183,900 / Dh249,000
Engine: 2.0L, turbocharged in-line four-cylinder / 3.0L, turbocharged V6
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic / Eight-speed automatic
Power: 252hp @ 5,000rpm / 354hp @ 5,400rpm
Torque: 370Nm @ 1,600rpm / 500Nm @ 1,370rpm
Fuel economy: combined 7.2L / 100km / 8.3L / 100km
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Paris Can Wait
Dir: Eleanor Coppola
Starring: Alec Baldwin, Diane Lane, Arnaud Viard
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
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Sustainable Development Goals
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its effects
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development
The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V8
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 582bhp
Torque: 730Nm
Price: Dh649,000
On sale: now