Delegates during the plenary session on ‘Women in Business in the Arab World” on the third day of the World Chambers Congress, yesterday.Salim Matramkot
DOHA: Arab women are fast outnumbering men in higher education and account for over 75 percent of students enrolled in colleges; but the workforce participation rate for women in the region remains among the lowest in the world, Chairperson of Arab International Women’s Forum said here yesterday.
Addressing a plenary session on ‘Women in Business in the Arab World” on the third day of World Chambers Congress, Forum head Haifa Fahoum Al Kaylani also noted that women’s participation in the regional economy was also negligible.
“Women are the Arab world’s most precious resource and we have not even begun to see the potential of tapping into this wealth of knowledge, education, motivation and the entrepreneurial spirit that is inherent and ingrained in Arab culture,” she said.
It’s true that the number of women holding ministerial-level positions and other roles in public life has increased significantly in the last decade, and we are seeing more women exert a strong influence on their communities. But women are still vastly underrepresented in the region overall. But the workforce participation of women in the region is just 27 percent, the lowest in the world, she said.
According to Haifa, Qatar has the highest level of local women in the workplace at 35 percent. While Bahrain and UAE have women in the workplace at 30 percent and 28 percent, Omani women have 25 percent representation. In Saudi Arabia, 17 percent of women have got representation at the workplace.
In the Gulf states alone, 48 percent of the population is women and yet female participation in the GCC economy stands at just 19.2 percent, or about one-fifth of the total workforce.
Nearly 57 percent of university graduates in Saudi Arabia are women, but women represent just 12 percent of the Saudi Arabian labour force, working primarily in the public sector.
The rate of female Saudi nationals working in the private sector is just 6.9 percent.
Haifa noted that young women were far more vulnerable to unemployment in Mena countries. For instance, the percentage of young Egyptian women graduating rose from six percent to 12 percent between 1998 and 2006, but the unemployment rate increased from 19 percent to 27 percent in this age range during the same period.
In the West Bank and Gaza, women with higher education accounted for 82 percent of unemployed women compared to only 12 percent for men in 2007.
In Jordan, 26.5 percent of women versus 9.1 percent of men with a bachelor’s degree or above are unemployed. She said more women than ever in the Arab world are choosing to become entrepreneurs rather than employees, and they are coming up with business concepts that are technologically-driven.
Women entrepreneurs tend to be prolific users of information technology and social media. In the process, many women-owned businesses, particularly in the GCC, are attracting significant venture capital investment, where in many other parts of the region, women still struggle with basic start-up financing.
Maelle Gavet, Chief Executive Officer, OZON Holdings, Leena Linnainmaa, deputy Chief Executive, Finland Chamber of Commerce and Malitlou Morojele, Past Chair, Lesotho Chamber of Commerce and Industry also spoke. The Peninsula
