The findings of the latest research white paper from Bayt.com, the Middle East’s #1 job site and YouGovSiraj, an international leader in market research, titled The Rising Ranks of Women in The Middle East Workplace indicate that professional women in the Middle East feel optimistic, empowered and confident of their career prospects.While it is important to point out that the macro level indicators still put the region at the bottom of the list on a number of working women related issues - such as having the smallest proportion of the workforce composed of women (less than 33% across the region – AHDR 2005) and lower access to education generally as well as fields of education, significant advancements have taken place in recent years.
The results of this groundbreaking survey show that women while still believing that their male counterparts have a gender based edge to some extent, do not see themselves as helpless victims of the system. Over 63% of women surveyed across the region (the survey encompassed the GCC, the Levant and Northern Africa) indicated that prospects had improved for women in their country, in many cases substantially, and over 75% of women stipulated that professional women were already represented in the senior ranks of their companies.
Most women indicated that gender has had no effect at all on their career prospects and of those that believe gender has impacted their career prospects, an exactly equal amount of women believe it to have impacted their career in a positive manner as those that believe gender has impacted their career negatively. 52% of women said that the system of recognizing rewarding and appreciating employees was based on performance alone and not on gender with only 17% asserting that male employees get better recognition than female employees. Does this mean employers should rest on their laurels and congratulate themselves on the status quo? No. 43% of women feel they earn less pay than their male colleagues in a similar position and 40% earn less than their partners.
This discrepancy in earnings potential between the genders is by no means a reflection of the amount of work that women feel they do or their ambition. In fact women across the region feel they work equal if not longer hours than their male counterparts (a little less so in government organizations), and are generally more ambitious than their male counterparts as well. Moreover, while most women believe they will spend an equal amount of time in their career path as their male counterparts, regardless of other obligations they may have, there is a general sense that their chances of promotion are more limited. Employers would do well to ensure that perceptions of inequality are not developed but rather addressed through clarity of position on the matter if not progressive and adaptive human resource policies and schemes that seek to level the playing field for women on a meritocratic basis. What else can employers do to motivate and retain this vital segment of the workforce? A lot! 32% of surveyed women are unsatisfied with the level of maternity leave and benefits available at their companies and another 32% believe having more children will impact their career negatively.
Moreover, 25% believe that their future marital life will be impacted negatively by their career choices. Consistent with this, 60% of women believe that employers should offer special benefits to women, primarily because women are responsible for nurturing the family unity and have pressing priorities outside of the workplace in many cases and a dual role in today’s society. It would be a missed opportunity if more is not done for their female employees given that against this backdrop, most women across all demographics (64% of all women surveyed) believe that if businesses were to introduce benefits to better accommodate them their longevity in the workplace would be significantly impacted. What benefits are women looking for?
Career growth opportunities, higher pay and training were quoted as the most important benefits that women sought from their employers. The next most important factor almost across the board was flexible working hours. Flexible hours was also what was seen as the most important obstacle to career development – while personal responsibility for career development was seen as key, lack of flexible hour arrangements was seen as the main external barrier to career advancement.
In keeping with the theme of personal responsibility towards career development that the survey results highlighted, across the board the main driver and simultaneously barrier to career growth and development was seen as oneself. Far from resting blame for career impediments on external influences and barriers, personal ability and commitment were predominantly seen to be the key influencers of career growth. The survey leaves no doubts that the Middle East is today a region where the professional woman has come of age and is an important, vibrant, vital and prolific part of the economic apparatus.
