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McKinsey in 2020 published the results of a year-long study it had carried out in a report titled “Women at Work: Job Opportunities in the Middle East Set to Double with the Fourth Industrial Revolution.” It found that the Middle East region has the lowest level of women’s participation in the labor market at 24.6 percent, compared to a global average of 47.8 percent. This is despite the Middle East having a comparable, if not higher, number of women in higher education, and generally with higher academic performance, including in the sciences.
A lack of digital inclusion and financial inclusion, poor legal protection and fewer opportunities for work experience are inhibiting women from entering the workforce, particularly at a professional level and in technical or STEM-related jobs. Additionally, a significant number of women in the Middle East do not have a bank account, with even fewer having internet banking, which increases the barriers to employment and starting a business. Kuwait, for example, demonstrates a good female-to-male ratio in professional and technical roles, but performs poorly in terms of legal protections.
Tailored education is needed to provide women with expertise, capabilities and experience in science, technology, engineering and math or IT and technical-focused roles, alongside strong role models. The culture and environment needs to be supportive, with legislation to ensure equality. This includes assured equal pay for everyone of the same grade, workload and experience; laws to forbid sexual harassment and a culture that upholds that and encourages reporting; and equal rights over what hours women can work and in what fields.
Gender equality is Goal Five of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and, as such, is part of most Middle Eastern countries’ respective vision strategies. It is understood that women joining the workforce could contribute more than $27 billion to gross domestic product in Saudi Arabia and Egypt by 2025, which is substantial when the Gulf states are looking to build innovative new industries away from oil and countries such as Egypt and Lebanon are suffering from high interest rates and soaring fuel and food costs, meaning they need to boost their economies.
Digitization, online platforms and entrepreneurship are predicted to double the number of women entering professional and technical roles
Dr. Bashayer Al-Majed
Digitization, online platforms and entrepreneurship are predicted to double the number of women entering professional and technical roles, with a huge swing in the types of jobs required. McKinsey’s report states that demand for physical and manual skills and basic cognitive skills will decrease by 14 percent and 15 percent, respectively, by 2030, with a concurrent 55 percent increase in demand for technological skills, along with 8 percent for higher cognitive skills and 24 percent for social and emotional skills. Even while maintaining traditional culture, this offers plenty of space for women to join the workforce.
With the ongoing big shift toward working from home, attending online meetings from anywhere and a more international work environment, working around the clock to fit with or support other countries, there are opportunities for flexible working. This allows women to fit work around home responsibilities should they choose to, should national or family culture not make it easy to work in an office or mixed-gender environment, or where international travel would once have been required.
Women building businesses encourages and empowers other women, not only by visual representation but also because female entrepreneurs are more likely to employ other women. Generation Zers are also more aware of what they want to achieve and what conditions they are willing to work under, meaning they have a more entrepreneurial outlook. This is positive, as there is currently high youth unemployment of 25 percent in Saudi Arabia and 33 percent in Egypt, both rising toward 50 percent for young women. If these women could be provided with suitable IT and business skills and encouraged to follow their passions — perhaps with entrepreneurial business support such as grants — they could do well, offering strong returns for the economy.
Uptake in the sciences and technological fields, other than medicine and engineering, are not particularly strong in the Middle East generally, regardless of gender. In IT in the UAE and in natural sciences in Saudi Arabia, there are slightly more women studying than men. However, overall, there is a much lower female uptake in digital technologies, plus studying does not necessarily equate to work, especially at managerial levels. Additionally, there is a 20 percent gender gap in the Middle East and North Africa in terms of access to mobile internet, with nearly 70 million women in the region missing out. Not only does this limit their internet skills, practice and confidence, but it also limits their access to jobs, with many employers advertising and recruiting via online platforms.
There are some great programs in place across the Middle East to encourage women and girls to take up STEM subjects in further education and to support entrepreneurship, but there are still many misconceptions and legal disparities. More needs to be done. It does not help when, for example, young women are prevented from attending university.
Women joining the labor market is great for the economy and the new digital wave will increase job opportunities and revolutionize how we work, with much greater gender equality possible.
- Dr. Bashayer Al-Majed is a professor of law at Kuwait University and a visiting fellow at Oxford. Twitter: @BashayerAlMajed