Bahrain EDB participates in Supreme Council for Women event

At the event, Al-Awadhi spoke about the EDB's role in supporting the empowerment of women in the Kingdom and the work it has done which led to the organisation receiving HRH Princess Sabeeka Al Khalifa's Award For Women Empowerment in 2011. She also spoke about how the financial award was used.

Bahrain has taken great steps in helping to empower women, through a focus on education, training and equality in the workplace and society. The Kingdom was the leader in the Gulf in education for women, opening its public education system to women in 1929. Bahraini women now represent nearly three quarters of students in the Kingdom, and represent nearly forty per cent of the workforce in the financial services sector.

These achievements have meant that, according to a survey last year by MasterCard, Bahraini women are the most empowered in the Middle East and are closest to men in terms of socio-economic parity.

Kamal bin Ahmed, Minister of Transportation and Acting Chief Executive of the EDB, said: "The EDB takes great pride in the role that women play in every aspect of society in the Kingdom. It is a core reason why Bahrain is recognised as the most liberal business environment in the Middle East, with the most skilled bilingual local workforce in the region. Only by continuing to drive forward progress will we continue to achieve these results to support economic growth and to help attract investment."

A number of the EDB's key reform initiatives in supporting the education sector and business environment have supported economic diversity and enhanced workplace and social equality for women. This is reflected in the EDB's foundations, and over half of the organisation's executive management are female.

In recognition of these efforts, in 2011 the EDB, competing against over fifty other government sector entities, was awarded HRH Princess Sabeeka Al Khalifa's Award For Women Empowerment within the government sector. The financial award was utilised by the EDB to create an intensive leadership workshop programme for young female employees in middle management. The experiential training, which focused on leadership styles and ethics, was carried out using practical methods such as physical and mental exercises, and personality and situational analysis.