Women rise up the ranks in Middle East workplace, shows Bayt.com and YouGovSiraj study

A further 7% of women reported receiving preferential treatment vis-à-vis male colleagues while 23% reported male colleagues received preferential treatment. The majority of women however at 43% of respondents, felt that their gender had not affected their career prospects, with a further 22% being polarized in their opinion of whether gender had had a positive or negative impact on their career.

The Women in the Workplace survey is a measure of women's perceptions, attitudes, experiences and satisfaction of various elements of their role in the workplace, especially in regard to their treatment and salaries received compared to their male counterparts.

The survey revealed that there was frequent disparity among nationalities with respect to their feelings about their promotion in the workplace. Although 41% of women felt they had a lower chance of being promoted than their male colleagues, this was most pronounced amongst GCC nationals, with half believing they stood a lower chance, closely followed by 47% of Asians. By contrast, 44% of Western women, almost double the average (27%), felt that their promotion chances were equal to their male equivalents.

"The opinions of female employees towards their work and their treatment in the workplace are hugely authoritative tools for revealing the true nature of the business environment from a woman's perspective in the Middle East today. In tracking and monitoring this data, organisations and businesses across the entire region can benefit from the findings, allowing them to adjust, or develop new sets of measures or behaviours for promoting crucial gender equality,"

said Bayt.com's CEO, Rabea Ataya.

One way that female workers' feelings about gender equality were measured, was in terms of their financial remuneration and their level of reward and benefits. Almost half of all women surveyed - 46% - feel that they receive less pay than their male counterparts, with Asian nationals most likely to feel this was the case at 58% of Asian respondents. Equality in terms of remuneration also differed by job sector, with majority of female government and semi-government employees seeming to be more equally paid than others. Together, almost half this group felt women receive a salary equal to that of male colleagues, compared with 34% of women working for locally owned companies.

In terms of satisfaction with regards to the level of work recognition they receive, only 24% of respondents indicated high levels of satisfaction with 28% indicating they were dissatisfied. GCC nationals were the most dissatisfied, with 38% citing satisfaction as low.

This should be viewed in conjunction with the fact that slightly over half the respondents felt that appreciation is based on performance alone and not on gender. Only 15% of respondents felt that male employees are better appreciated than female employees. A quarter of the respondents though reported that appreciation was completely nonexistent - an astonishing finding in itself.

Despite 62% of women believing that employers should provide preferential treatment or special benefits to them because they are responsible for the wellbeing of the family, 63% said that they do not receive any special benefits on account of their gender. Amongst the nationalities, Asian women felt most strongly (71%) that they should receive special benefits, compared to only 48% of Westerners who felt that allowances should be made on account of their responsibilities at home.

The Women in the Workplace survey also seeks to investigate what facilities currently exist for women in terms of maternity leave or other gender specific benefits. The majority of women at 46% indicated allowances of between one and three months of paid maternity leave, with only 6% of women saying they weren't permitted any paid time off. However, satisfaction with maternity leave wavered between indifferent and low, at 34% and 29% respectively. An overwhelming majority of women at 81%, indicated that their current employers do not provide any day care facilities for the children of female employees, with employees in government and semi-government companies fairing only marginally better (13%) than the average (10%).

The survey additionally tabulates other benefits for working women, including family health insurance, training, flexible hours, part-time work options, children education allowances and extended maternity leave beyond the standard allowance. "Gauging the availability and popularity of these different facilities provides a valuable look at what measures and services employers are currently making available for women, and point to what employers could be doing to further improve the working life for women - especially those that balance their work and a family. This is critical in light of the fact that 80% of respondents have indicated that more benefits would extend their working life," commented Ataya.

The research goes on to highlight the different reasons that women of different nationalities choose to work. The majority of all women said they worked to achieve their ambition in life at 62%, while 61% cited financial responsibility and need as the key factor. The majority of GCC nationals (75%) worked for a sense of achievement, while most Western women (68%) cited monetary independence as the main reason to work; indicative perhaps of cultural trends and societal differences with regard to working attitudes.

"With ever greater calls for increasing the number of the region's nationals in domestic workforces, women have a more strategic role to play in the further economic development and growth of the Middle East than ever before. Data such as this offers a wide array of benefits to HR industry players, recruiters and online recruitment sites like Bayt.com, by providing detailed, considered insights into what it really means to be an employed woman in the Middle East. Overall, these insights serve to offer indications and drivers that can ultimately effect positive change for greater workplace equality," said Ataya.

"In spite of several gender-based disadvantages and additional familial responsibilities, what struck me as being truly remarkable was the sheer determination of women to succeed. This is clearly evident from the majority of women (72%) who said they would prefer to work even if they were given the option not to. The majority are also equally or more ambitious (84%) and work an equal to more number of hours (89%) than their male counterparts. Its time employers sit up and take notice of this vital segment of their workforce as research reveals that if provided simple benefits, it would increase the longevity of 80% of women's careers which will have a long term beneficial impact on the business and the economy as a whole," commented Nassim Ghrayeb, CEO YouGovSiraj.

The data for the July 2008 Women in the Workplace survey was collected online between the period of 4th and 22nd of June 2008, with 2,602 women recruited - 1,515 of which were working - across the UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Females aged between 15 and 59 and a mix of local, Arab expat, Western and Asian nationalities were included in the survey.