Gulf businesswomen strike back!

By KAREN THOMAS ABU DHABI

The numbers are surprising. In the Gulf Cooperation (GCC) states, women make up 65 percent of university graduates. In Oman and Kuwait, women outnumber men even in traditionally masculine disciplines such as law and science, and more than 70 percent of students at higher colleges in the UAE are female.
Money matters. Much is made of the need for GCC governments to find jobs for greater numbers of nationals in the private sector, replacing migrant workers whose remittances drain regional economies of much-needed revenue. The question for these governments is how to prepare women to play that role.
"The sooner that the Middle East embraces women in the workforce, the sooner economic recovery will begin," says Dina Kaldi, co-founder of Women in Business in the Arab World. "Statistically, there are more women than men and, although foreign labor compensates for the lack of women, sooner or later the region - and particularly the oil-producing states - will face a serious dilemma."
Zayed University in the UAE is a women-only university that trains young Emirati women in the language, technology and professional skills that they need to enter the competitive modern workplace. Students need basic proficiency in English and a laptop computer to join an entry-level course covering general skills, before choosing a major. The second year includes Arabic and Islamic studies, English, mathematics and science. Work experience is central, with first-year students placed in leading UAE firms, including Etisalat, Emirates, Saatchi and Al Futtaim.
The university's publicity material depicts bright-eyed, enthusiastic young Emirati women at work and at play, teaming their decorous black veils and abaya with subtle makeup, jeans and fashionable shoes. University staff are no less enthusiastic about the 1,500 students, almost glowing when discussing the university's pioneering work.
"Staff from all the other higher colleges in the Emirates say that the level of motivation is so much higher among young women than it is among the male students," says Judy Turk, Zayed University's dean of communication and media sciences. "Al Ain University even has lower entry requirements for male students. If they had kept the same entry level as the women's, few would have been able to enroll."
Women overtaking men in education is a striking phenomenon across all the GCC states, except Saudi Arabia. But while many are motivated by a thirst for education that will equip them for an independent career, these "working girls" are by no means in the majority. Every year, thousands of talented young women graduate from Gulf universities, never to display their skills in public again. For many, graduation closes the deal they have made with their parents: that they will only marry when they have completed their education.
Some Gulf families educate their daughters to become accomplished wives, the better to snare a wealthy, well-connected husband. The degree certificate is not always a passport to a career; it can symbolize the start of married life or, for married graduates, time to start a family. Work-wise, graduation is the end of the road. One of the great ironies surrounding Gulf women is that while, unlike most women worldwide, they have both an extended family and the income to hire childcare and domestic staff, it has traditionally been unacceptable for a woman to work outside the home. Even today, many young women who enter the workforce leave when they marry, or once they start a family.
A fine balance. "The hardest sell is among men of their own age," Turk says. "My students keep coming back to the fact that you do have to make sacrifices to have a career, because women are still expected to be mothers and cannot give up that role, so they have to find a balance."
Despite the UAE government's commitment to increasing the number of young nationals in the workplace, and particularly in the private sector, women are not fulfilling their potential. Graduates seeking work generally favor government jobs rather than the private sector, which demands longer hours and greater commitment and is seen as inflexible. While state employees are free to spend the afternoon with their families, private companies make no allowances for women seeking part-time hours to juggle childcare commitments.
There are few female role models to inspire young Gulf women to strike out in the workforce. It is no coincidence that many of the most successful and high-profile Gulf businesswomen are the daughters of powerful trading families who have taken the helm of the family business and made it their own.
Mohsin Haider Darwish is Oman's leading vehicle distribution firm, with the franchise for Land Rover and Jaguar cars. Lujaina Mohsin Darwish, elected last year as one of two female members of Oman's Majlis al-Shura, spent three years teaching at Sultan Qaboos University before her father persuaded her to join the family firm. Since then, her public profile has soared.
The eldest of three sisters, she started as an assistant manager in administration, was promoted after two years to manager and then to director of personnel and administration for the group. "To go into business, women must be educated but they must also learn to be patient," Darwish says.
"Women in business go through a very tough time: it is not easy. Many men in our society find it hard to accept that a woman can come in and take over, and believe that a woman has to stay home to raise children - that business is a man's world. I had to convince them that I wasn't there to take from them, I was there to help."
Regional governments have called on nationals to get to work, building a private sector that is less dependent on oil and replacing expensive migrant workers and executives with an indigenous workforce. Thus the campaign for women's rights - or rather, their right to work - has been co-opted into official policy.
Ideological factors often come into play in the Middle East. Western criticism of women's rights in Muslim states has created a closing of ranks against outside criticism. This can lead to the logical conclusion that, as Islam is inherently pro-women, the only remaining obstacles to women are their own shortcomings.
When women from across the region converged on Cairo for the Summit of the Arab Woman in November 2000, the organizers trumpeted the fact that the wives and daughters of 19 (male) leaders had graced the summit with their presence. While the educated and powerful daughters of the elite are forging their own networks and building international links with other women, less privileged Arab women have very different, more basic, needs.
In Yemen, says Mahasen Al Munabairi, chairperson of the Yemeni Businesswomen's Group, women need everything from loans to marketing support. "The productive women and families that we are working with in Yemen lack professionalism in marketing their goods," Al Munabairi says. "It is not only about the standard of product, but about presenting it with packaging - and about to whom you present it, and when."
"Typically, women do not inherit the family business or buy established businesses," Dina Kaldi points out. "More likely, they start businesses from personal necessity or a lack of opportunity. Women need more flexibility to reconcile the competing claims of career and family - 70 percent of businesswomen [worldwide] have children."
I once interviewed an Arab woman politician - her country's leading campaigner for women's rights - who vehemently argued that sexual harassment did not exist in the Middle East. When presented with examples, she remained unimpressed. "What kind of woman cannot handle a little teasing?" she boomed.
On tiptoes. The politician is from a family whose business interests span three continents. But most women start out with little more than good grades and ambition - vulnerable and junior employees whose advancement requires striking a balance between proving their worth and tiptoeing around male colleagues' delicate sensibilities.
Often, it is the lack of opportunities within the structures of corporate machismo that prompts women to strike out alone. Arguably, then, the success of a few daughters of the Arab elite masks the obstacles facing less privileged women in a region where wasta - a network of personal and professional connections - rules.
"I am sure that a lot of women who inherit wealth are very able, but there is such a big difference between those Arab ladies born with a silver spoon in their mouth and those who have set up by themselves," says a conference organizer, who asked not to be named. "These self-made women are not getting the recognition they deserve. They don't get their moment in the spotlight at conferences, because they don't have the right family name. You try to bring in real businesswomen, but people just want to see the familiar names. It's a Catch-22."