Women’s development continues apace in UAE

Noura Al Kaabi, Minister of State for Federal National Council Affairs, praised the elevation of women to key jobs. Delores Johnson / The National

Big inroads made to address gender imbalance in the UAE with women taking key roles but conference told momentum must be kept up.

ABU DHABI // Women are making great strides in the UAE but better understanding of gender equality is needed to ensure that momentum is maintained, female leaders say.

The Conference of the International Association for Official Statistics looked at the role of women in society, which Noura Al Kaabi, Minister of State for Federal National Council Affairs and chairwoman of Media Zone Authority – Abu Dhabi and twofour54, said was progressing effectively.

“The UAE is going through a very critical time successfully. Statistics show that women are playing an important role in the development of the country and in the progress of society,” said Ms Al Kaabi, who highlighted Shamma Al Mazrui, who was appointed Minister of State for Youth Affairs at 22 in February, as an example of the progress Emirati women have made.

Ms Al Mazrui’s appointment makes her the youngest government minister in the world.

Ms Al Kaabi also referred to Amal Al Qubaisi, Speaker of the Federal National Council and the first woman to head a parliament in the Middle East, as how the UAE continues to elevate women to positions of power.

“During the formation of the Union, the late Sheikh Zayed mentioned women as a key figure to the development of the nation,” said Ms Al Kaabi, who added that 66 per cent of public-sector jobs are filled by women, with 30 per cent in decision-making positions.

Ms Al Kaabi said the UAE has laws, and more in preparation, to empower women. These include rules that firms must appoint at least one women to a managerial position.

The conference was told how the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals aims to end discrimination against women by affording them equal rights.

However, Mona Khalaf Al Daas, assistant undersecretary, Central Statistical Bureau of Kuwait, said that some of the SDG’s indicators failed to accurately measure the progress of women in the Arabian Gulf.

“One of the indicators is technological access, and they measure it by the number of women who own phones. That would be easily misinterpreted in this region. Instead, we need to say, for example, how mobile technology eases the daily life of a modern working women,” she said.

The conference also heard how women most need society’s support when they choose to have children and that measures should be introduced to allow them to maintain a professional career while having a family.

“In this region I believe it is easy to hire people to help,” said Zahira Kamal, director general, Palestine Women Research and Documentation Centre. “But that doesn’t mean husbands shouldn’t also be a part of the responsibility of raising children.”

In the UAE, women are given up to three months’ maternity leave and can leave work two hours earlier for six months on their return, said Ms Al Kaabi.

Such laws, she said, help promote women’s professional development and tap into a fruitful and increasingly significant resource in professions that might previously have been viewed as exclusively male-dominated such as the science, technology, engineering and mathematics.