A new survey conducted by Bayt.com – the Middle East’s #1 job site – and YouGov – global online market research company – entitled Working Women in the MENA, revealed that financial independence (55%) is a key reason women enter the workforce in the Middle East.
Economic and social factors have continued to alter the landscape for working women and their economic contributions are becoming increasingly important within households –51% of female respondents said that they seek employment to support or financially contribute to the household,43% do it to broaden perspectives on life and42% said to secure the family/children’s future.
Ola Haddad, Director of Human Resources at Bayt.com said: “Our survey explores the status of working women across the MENA region by analyzing their perceptions about equality at work and their motivations for employment. It identifies the employment challenges today’s working women face, and examines how these concerns relate to their job and career decisions.”
The survey results show that a large majority of respondents (76%) have a mix of men and women at their workplace. Over two-thirds (67%) of women say they are comfortable working in a mixed-gender environment, with40% claiming to be extremely comfortable. Only a small number of respondents (7%) are uncomfortable with mixed-gender environments.
Gender Equality at MENA workplaces
Companies in the MENA region recognize that gender equality is a crucial component to creating inclusive workplaces. Overall, a majority of women believe that women and men are treated equally at their workplace across a variety of areas, including career progression (67%), recruitment and selection (63%), and benefits offered (55%).
In line with the overall feeling of workplace equality, the majority of the respondents (62%) reported working the same number of hours as male colleagues, while almost one in five (22%) reported working more hours than male colleagues.
Benefits Offered to Women
As for women-specific benefits in the workplace, the top five benefits MENA respondents receive from their organizations are personal health insurance (39%), paid maternity leave (38%), job-related training (31%), transport allowance (30%), and family health insurance (24%). Most women reported their organization offers official maternity leave of one to three months.
Work-Life Fit & Future Challenges
Fewer opportunities for job promotions (46%), stressful and demanding work environment (37%), and lack of job stability / security (35%) are reported to be the top three challenges women face in their work environment.
When asked about key challenges in their life, difficulty in finding good job opportunities (57%), lack of opportunities to improve their professional skills (42%), and not having enough opportunities to relax or socialize (34%), emerged as top three.
The Pursuit of Happiness
An analysis of survey data highlights some very concrete truths about the progress of female empowerment within the MENA region. Establishing a successful career emerged as the main source of happiness for most of female respondents (49%), followed by maintaining good health (49%), making money (33%) and spending time with family (32%).
To understand what women value in their decision to take a job, the survey asked respondents to reflect on which job characteristics are important to them. Overall, the majority (57%) of respondents selected a higher salary as the most important benefit, followed by opportunities for long term career growth (37%) and health insurance for whole family (28%). Less travel and separate work areas appear to be significantly less important.
Women respondents indicated that their career choices had a positive effect (34%) or no effect (38%) on their marital life. Furthermore,47% of those surveyed believe their future marriage plans would affect their career choices at least to some extent whilst31% believe these plans will not affect their career choices.
Familiarity With the Labor Law
Protecting the rights of both men and women at the workplace is a viable path to hiring and increasing the retention of talent. A whopping91% of women respondents state that they have familiarity with the labor laws of their country of residence, with45% claiming to be very familiar. Of those who are familiar with the labor laws, three-quarters (75%) stated that they are fair to women, at least to some extent.
Zafar Shah, Research Director at YouGov said: “Our survey analyzed female job satisfaction in the region and found important links between women's job satisfaction and an employer's culture and benefits. While most of our respondents believe women and men are treated equally at their work environment, the research will help employers focus on what matters to women in the workplace.”
Data for the Bayt.com and YouGov’s Working Women in the MENA survey was collected online from December2,2020 to January7,2021. Results are based on a sample of1,243 female respondents from the following countries: UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Sudan among others.