Middle Eastern Men Not More Biased Against Women Than Men in the West
- Women are not necessarily as oppressed or victimised as is often perceived, according to a working paper by INSEAD research fellow Katty Marmenout, based at the Centre for Executive Education and Research in Abu Dhabi.(The study focused, though, on the United Arab Emirates, and acknowledges that there are wide differences in the level of progress across the region.)
- According to Marmenout’s paper, ‘Women-focused Leadership Development in the Middle East’, Middle Eastern men are not more biased against women than their counterparts in the UK.
- It also found that women in the Middle East believe that leadership roles are attainable in management, and they scored higher on this measure than women in Japan and Germany.
- There is a disconnect between the high number of women university graduates (three-quarters of local university graduates are women) and the proportion of women in the workforce in the UAE. Just under 15% of Emirati women are in full-time employment. The majority of them are in the public sector as teachers and clerical workers.
- Marmenout says that gender stereotyping is not responsible for the low number of women in work. She suggests that tradition and the need to look after large families are more important factors.
- There are three ways in which women can overcome these barriers to work, says Marmenout: leading from behind-the-scenes known as ‘shadow leadership’; setting up businesses from home; and working in the public sector where the hours are more suited to life balance.
- There is a need for more female role models for women in leadership positions.
- Marmenout also points out the differences in women’s status in different countries, noting that in Saudi Arabia, for example, work is still largely segregated. She says, “Generally we cannot endorse this way of working because it must be sub-optimal”.
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