MasterCard index on women's socioeconomic standing shows advancement in UAE

United Arab Emirates (UAE) saw its Index score rise to 93.3 from 86.6 in 2008, ranking number three out of the six markets surveyed in the Middle East.

The MasterCard Worldwide Index of Women's Advancement measures the socioeconomic level of women in relation to men using four key indicators:

- Two of the indicators are based on source data from national statistics bureaus and cover the ratio of female to male participation in the labor force and tertiary education.

- Two of the indicators are based on survey data and measure the ratio of female to male respondent perceptions of whether they hold managerial positions at work and earn above median income. These subjective factors are a gauge of how empowered and valuable respondents feel at work.

The resulting Index figure calculated from these indicators shows how close or how far women in each market are achieving socioeconomic parity with men. A score under 100 indicates gender inequality in favor of males while a score above 100 indicates inequality in favor of females.

A score of 100 indicates equality between the sexes. The Index and its accompanying reports do not represent MasterCard financial performance.

The increase in the score was a result of a higher proportion of women to men considering themselves as being in managerial positions and earning above median income.

The number of women per 100 men considering themselves in managerial positions increased from 42 in 2008 to 74 in 2009, while the number of women per 100 men considering themselves as earning above median income increased from 41 in 2008 to 43 in 2009.

The proportion of women to men participating in the labor force also saw a marginal increase, from 47 women per 100 men in 2008 to 48 in 2009. The number of women per 100 men enrolled in tertiary education, however, dropped from 217 in 2008 to 208 in 2009.

The pan-regional Index score across 14 Asia/Pacific markets edged up slightly from 71.6 in 2008 to 72.4 in 2009, while across the Middle East and Africa, the overall Index score decreased from 78.3 last year to 76.9 this year.

Markets from the Middle East topped the Index this year, despite the drop in their overall Index score. Kuwait emerged with the highest Index score of 112.2, followed by Qatar (104.3) and the UAE (93.3). In Asia/Pacific, Australia had the highest Index score (96.1), followed by Thailand (91.5) and New Zealand (90.5).

"Women's socioeconomic standing in the UAE has advanced compared to 2008. A higher proportion of women to men consider themselves as being in managerial positions and earning above median income. In addition, compared to their male counterparts, women are more confident in their outlook for the next six months across a range of indictors including quality of life, the stock market, the economy and employment,"

said Eyad Al-Kourdi, vice president and country manager, UAE, MasterCard Worldwide.

In Asia/Pacific, Singapore had the highest ratio of women to men who saw themselves in a managerial role at work (86 women per 100 men), followed by China (75) and Australia (74).

In the Middle East, Lebanon had the highest score in this indicator with 75 women per 100 men perceiving themselves as managers, followed by the UAE (74) and Saudi Arabia (64).

In terms of women who felt they earned above the median income, Singapore ranked the highest in Asia/Pacific, with 98 women per 100 men indicating that they earn above the median income, followed by Australia (92) and Thailand (83).

In the Middle East, Egyptian women came out ahead of the men in this indicator, with 113 women per 100 men stating that they earned above the median income. Qatar (104 women per 100 men) followed closely, with Lebanon (77) next in the line up.

Additional highlights include:

In the 6 Middle East markets:

- Egypt showed the greatest rise in its Index score, followed by Kuwait, UAE and Saudi Arabia. The Index score of Lebanon saw a decrease.

- Kuwait had the highest proportion of women to men (66 women per 100 men) in terms of labor force participation, followed by the UAE (48) and Lebanon (47).

- In terms of enrollment in tertiary education, all markets in the Middle East had more than 100 women enrolled in tertiary education for every 100 men. Kuwait (284 women per 100 men) had the highest score in this indicator, followed by Qatar (266) and the UAE (208).

- More than 50% of the women surveyed in the UAE (60.0%) and Saudi Arabia (59.2%) saw themselves as the one who makes most of the major financial decisions for the household.

- Women from Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE and Egypt were more positive than men in terms of their outlook for the next six months.

In 14 Asia/Pacific markets:

- Australia saw the greatest increase in its Index score, followed by Thailand, New Zealand, Singapore and China. The rest of the markets showed decreases in their scores.

- The Index score for the Philippines saw the biggest drop, followed by Taiwan, Korea and Japan.

- In terms of tertiary education enrollment rates, markets recording the highest scores were New Zealand (154 women per 100 men), Australia (132) and Malaysia (131).

- In terms of labor force participation, the proportion of women to men was the highest in Vietnam (94 women per 100 men), New Zealand (89) and Thailand (88).

- More than 50% of the women surveyed in eight of the 14 Asia/Pacific markets saw themselves as the one who makes most of the major financial decisions for the household. Topping the list was Thailand (77.8% of the women surveyed), followed by Korea (74.4%), China (73.2%), Vietnam (68.8%), Indonesia (59.6%), the Philippines (57.6%), Japan (54.4%), Taiwan (54.2) and New Zealand (50.5%).

- In terms of consumer confidence across Asia/Pacific, women in seven of the 14 markets surveyed were more positive than men in terms of their overall outlook for the next six months: Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.

MasterCard is committed to empowering women through initiatives such as its U21 Global Scholarship for Women in Travel and Tourism, which was launched in 2006 to provide working women professionals a program to develop their leadership skills and realize their full potential in the area of travel and tourism.

The program comprises scholarships given out for the U21Global Executive Diploma of Business Administration that can articulate into The University of Nottingham MSc in Tourism and Travel Management.

MasterCard has devoted extensive resources to developing a deeper understanding of the women's segment in Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa. It regularly releases consumer insights and trend research on women. These can be accessed at its online repository of proprietary research www.masterintelligence.com