March was an interesting month for focusing on women-in-business issues, given International Women’s day early in the month and the 63rd World Meeting of Women Entrepreneurs held in the GCC. Research was also published last month emphasizing the greatest revolution in human capacity will be driven by the arrival of many more educated women into the global workforce.
In February, the GCC was also host to the ‘Women In The World Middle East Summit’. This event brought together many of the region’s most influential women to share their individual stories, presenting the voices of ‘women of originality, daring, and accomplishment’.
Summing up some of the conclusions from all this activity regarding women in the workforce, ‘Psychology Today’ magazine tells us women leaders are better than men at inspiration, participatory decision making, honesty and integrity. Zenger Folkman’s research finds women score better than men in thirty six out of forty nine leadership qualities including taking initiative, self-development, developing others and innovative creativity. Women are found to be more collaborative and, intriguingly, more likely to break rules and take greater risks.
Female business leaders in the Middle East are beginning to seize more opportunities for professional advancement. Arab women are certainly at the forefront of an economic transformation throughout the Middle East, acting as agents of change in business, government and society as a whole. There are many lists published of powerful and influential Arab business women, invariably based on criteria such as years of experience, degrees of power, family heritage, number of staff, geographic spread of their business concerns – all encapsulated with their influence over specific media.
At a recent lecture, Dr Afnan Al-Shuaiby, secretary-general and chief executive of the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce, said there is much greater awareness and appreciation of contributions by Arab businesswomen in the modern economy. She added there are greater opportunities for women to make use of their education, leadership skills and business acumen at all levels.
Figures released by the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce show that in the GCC, 48 percent of the combined populations are women. Female participation in the economy of the GCC however stands at only about one-fifth of the total; an opportunity waiting to be exploited. Yet The International Monetary Fund (IMF) states women are more likely than men to graduate from universities in the MENA region. There are major gender gaps waiting to be addressed with educated females looking for the right careers.
Christine Lagarde, Director of the IMF noted that “for the entire Middle East and North Africa region, the gap between men and women’s participation in the labour force over the past decade was almost triple the average gap in the emerging market and developing economies. If this gap had simply been double instead of triple, the gains for the entire region, the Gulf countries included, would have been enormous almost $1 trillion in output, amounting to annual gains of about 6 per cent of GDP.”
There are still many hindrances and brakes on full participation in the labour force, not just in the MENA region but across the world. As Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, recently said, “We hold ourselves back in ways both big and small, by lacking self-confidence, by not raising our hands, and by pulling back when we should be leaning in.”
Having said this there are many women determined to run companies, start new firms, create jobs for countless others and exercise the skills already discussed to create viable and energetic organisations. Across the Middle East, there is an increasing awareness that the skills and talents of half the population have been under-utilised for too long.
It is not only the famous and well-connected women in the Arab world who are getting noticed. There are many others, such as Ameera Al Arrayed of Al Arrayed Logistics, based in Bahrain, who are helping to take their family businesses into the 21st century. As director of finance and administration she is introducing new ways of operating and stimulating fresh approaches for the benefit of the company’s customers, staff, the rest of the owning family as well as the economies of the Kingdom and the GCC
There are more highly educated women entering the workforce as business owners and skilled employees in larger numbers than any previous generation. These women are coming with a career mind-set – not just driven by an economic need. They are ambitious and are looking to progress.
Conscious that not all companies will create the right environment for them to exercise their skills, many talented females are being selective about where they work. Owners and employers wanting to attract more than their fair share of these talented women will need to show that they are taking them seriously. They will have to ensure their own values and those of their companies are compatible with getting the best out of this more demanding workforce.