Higher literacy levels among United Arab Emirates (UAE) women have meant that the number of females in the workforce and business arena in the country has increased considerably. This development has been facilitated by the strong incentives offered by the government for women’s education and the innovative new policies being implemented to enhance women’s role in public life.
Literacy among the UAE women has risen sharply from the 1980 figure of just 22.4 percent to more than 88.7 percent in 1995. The last decade has continued to witness increasing growth in the literacy rates among UAE women, as evidenced by the growing number of women in universities.
According to official figures, women make up over 72 percent of university students in the country at the university level, with many of them opting for the information technology and engineering disciplines.
The increasing numbers of educated women has had repercussions in the employment market, the most obvious being that women are demanding and obtaining jobs. In fact, in UAE, women are spread across the entire civil service and now account for around 40 percent of the total number of employees.
Shell in conjunction with Dubai Quality Group has instituted the Emirates Businesswomen Award which will be awarded for the first time in April 2003. The award will be given away in two categories, open to business owners as well as professionals. The categories are Business Owners/Investors and Professionals. The award is open to local women as well as expatriates. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
