UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - CABINET RESOLUTION REQUIRES WOMEN ON BOARDS OF GOVERNMENT BODIES & COMPANIES
Women
Must Be Significant Part of UAE Workforce
By
Gulf News - December 10, 2012
The overwhelming ratio of men over women in significant positions at the work place must change. The UAE will not be able to meet its challenges if half its population is not in serious contention for joining the fast stream to the top. It is a matter of great pride for the country that a substantial number of its graduates are women, but they have to be ready to stay in their careers and deliver what the country needs from its educated population.
This week, the cabinet passed a useful resolution, which required all government bodies and companies to have women members on their boards. This positive discrimination is important because it forces slow-moving managements to fast-track their fostering of women in the work place and it allows role models to emerge at a senior level, who are an invaluable inspiration to young women starting their careers.
However, at the very least, such women board members also have to be competent, if not excellent, in the skill sets that the board requires. They would do a great disservice to their fellow women if they were appointed merely as the “token woman” on the board and then only allowed to look at soft issues that old stereotypes used to allocate to women. It is essential that women on boards, or in any position in business or the civil service, should be looked at in the same way as men. They should be judged on their technical abilities, their management and people-to-people skills or on the basis of their ability to deliver a project. These performance indicators should apply equally to men and women.
The talent that is being unleashed in the UAE is fascinating. Only a few years ago, it was unthinkable to see women ministers, entrepreneurs, executives, technicians, pilots or even taxi drivers. Yet, today, all these positions are being filled by women, who are all part of the emerging skills that the UAE is fostering. Women are a vital part of the country’s future.