Women Empowerment between the GCC Countries
The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf was established on May, 25 1981 at the meeting of the heads of Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia in Abu Dhabi (Dunlop, Imelda et al.). Its activity covers the fields of politics and economics, defense, security, information, culture, health and education. Women in GCC countries are believed by some in the international community to be submissive and restricted, with little or no role to play in the socioeconomic development of the region (Masah, Al). Defying this popular belief, GCC women are now actively participating in the social, political, cultural, and commercial aspects of their respective societies.
The socioeconomic condition of GCC women has enhanced over the past few decades (Dunlop, Imelda et al.). These women are averring to be an essential motivation for the GCC economic power (Fyfe, Cecilia Felicitas). A principal supposition inducing this alteration is the abundance of higher education among females in the area (Dunlop, Imelda et al.). The female enrollment rate is herein above than that of males across all rates in the Arab region (Masah, Al); therefore, there is a noticeable mismatch between female participation in education and the rate of women’s participation in the workforce (Fyfe, Cecilia Felicitas). Although women constitute ~40% of the GCC population and have a higher literacy rate than men, female labor contribution continues low at 29% (Masah, Al). Lack of incentive, poor job facilities, restriction on rights at the work place, and pressure of domestic responsibilities prevent the overall development of women.
Nonetheless, the labor trend in the GCC countries is moving forward, with the participation of women doubling and, in some examples, become four times higher in some countries over the past 30 years (Masah, Al). A good example is that the female labor workers' association has increased 3.7x and 3.1x in Dubai and Qatar since 2003, respectively (Masah, Al). GCC female representatives are now engaging in success in the branch of production according to their preferences. Corresponding to the Dubai Statistics Centre, commercial activity is the preferable field of learning performance of 33% tertiary women students in the emirate (Masah, Al). Furthermore, women’s enrollment in engineering ingenuity has increased approximately sixfold since 2011; enrollment levels for jurisprudence studies also became higher by 62% (Masah, Al). Corresponding to a blog post by SAIS Global Women in Leadership Conference, females from the Middle East are creating one of every four new startups, notably in technical and applied science, fashion, and mass communication.
Female personnel are at the present at par with their male contemporaries on dimensional characters such as duration of working time, education and progress, employment and selection, and compensation payments. The private economy reports for 80% of the general female occupation in the GCC (Masah, Al). GCC females are scaling up the value chain to assume leadership roles. Arab females have marked their close proximity in various segments, such as structures of governance, administration, and commercial activity (Young, Karen E.). …
