Gulf Women Buy Shares to Get on Company Boards - Building Gender Balanced Business

• More Arab women than men get university degrees but only 39% of United Arab Emirates women work.

• Women hold only 3% of board seats in the Gulf Cooperation Council region (which includes the UAE).

• But UAE women also control assets worth $245 billion and are expected to hold $385 billion by 2011. Saudi women control almost a third of bank deposits in their country.

• Many of those women are now using those assets to buy shares. NASDAQ Dubai says female investors traded more than 18 billion shares in 2008.

• And some of those female investors are pushing for board seats.

• Nadereh Chamlou, a senior adviser at the World Bank, said: “Through high-level investment these women are buying a seat at the table. Investment is a legitimate path to increasing your influence.”

• The World Bank says one in seven Middle East firms is owned by a female but only 60 percent of women actually run the firms they own.

• Nadereh Chamlou, a senior adviser at the World Bank, said: “A higher number of female CEOs – even if it’s in name only – means there’s a higher likelihood of these firms having modern governance systems that hire other women. These women are precisely the class of players we need. We need to promote them, not dismiss them because they received their wealth from their father.”

The ArabianBusiness.com article

• More Arab women than men get university degrees but only 39% of United Arab Emirates women working.

• Women hold only 3% of board seats in the Gulf Cooperation Council region (which includes the UAE).

• But UAE women also control assets worth $245 billion and are expected to hold $385 billion by 2011. Saudi women control almost a third of bank deposits in their country.

• Many of those women are now using those assets to buy shares. NASDAQ Dubai says female investors traded more than 18 billion stocks in 2008.

• And some of those female investors are pushing for board seats.

• Nadereh Chamlou, a senior adviser at the World Bank, said: “Through high-level investment these women are buying a seat at the table. Investment is a legitimate path to increasing your influence. There are many opportunities for the Warren Buffets of this world to be Gulf women – they have the money.”

• The World Bank says one in seven Middle East firms is owned by a female but only 60 percent of women actually run the firms they own.

• Nadereh Chamlou, a senior adviser at the World Bank, said: “A higher number of female CEOs – even if it’s in name only – means there’s a higher likelihood of these firms having modern governance systems that hire other women. These women are precisely the class of players we need. We need to promote them, not dismiss them because they received their wealth from their father.”

The ArabianBusiness.com article