The Machines of Change in Dubai (Driven by Women)
Not too long ago female UAE nationals in Dubai didn’t make contact with men who weren’t their husbands or relatives in public. It was also deemed inappropriate for them to be out after 10pm. Today, according to a BBC article on UAE women in the workforce, attitudes are mellowing as more UAE women than ever before are going to university and entering a wide range of professions.
A Wave of Opportunities and Women are Waving Back
All UAE government universities may be single-sex, but a wave of job opportunities brought in by the booming economy over the past 3 decades has inspired a government drive to empower and educate women. 65% of UAE university students are female and 15% of the UAE workforce is made up of women, who are entering across the board of occupations, but particularly the private sector.
Government departments are popular with UAE national women (and men) because of the unique benefits (shorter hours, attractive housing pay, loner holidays.) The pinnacle of this was the appointment of Dubai’s rising star: female Economics and Planning Minister, Sheika Lubna Qasimi in 2004.
In the BBC article, Amna Mazam, a UAE national, and student counsellor at Dubai Women’s College says 50-60% of their 2,300 students are likely to continue into employment. The majority of the others do not work because of pressure from their parents or husbands, or because they choose to stay at home to raise children.
What do UAE Husbands Think of Their Wives Working?
It’s often said that when a UAE husband says yes, he means yes, and when he says no he means no. Many of the UAE women mentioned in the article seem to feel the same way. This is great if you come up with two yeses but problematic if there’s a divergence of opinion on the matter.
It would seem that opinions vary wildly. Some young UAE favour their wives working as it creates life experience, sparks interest, conversation and nourishes the relationship. Others, such as 25 year old Salim Alakraf, tells the BBC that he would prefer would prefer a future wife to be “a queen” presiding over the home, rather than “a worker”.
Ground Covered and The Path Ahead
The female professions that prove most difficult to assimilate with traditional UAE culture are those involving a mixed-gender environment, or a lot of contact with the public or those from other cultures.
Then there’s ranking: with UAE national women rising to ever-higher professional positions, more and more male counterparts are finding themselves under female authority which was traditionally a major no-no.
While attitudes are changing, in many ways, Dubai is just the tip of the iceberg and it could take a while for such progressive attitudes to trickle thorough to more traditional and conservative parts of the Emirates. Still, at least the ball is rolling and it would see that women in Dubai are making quite a name for themselves:
“For an Emerati man it can get scary, because women are working so hard to prove themselves. They’re doing a very good job and they’re giving us big competition,” says Fahad Qahtani in the BBC article.
