A champion of women empowerment

dubai - Dr Payyazhi Jayashree bats for more diverse and inclusive workplaces in the UAE

Uae leaders and policy makers are committed to enabling the effective integration of nationals, especially women, into the workforce in alignment with the UAE Constitution which gives equal rights to men and women, said Dr Payyazhi Jayashree, associate dean of education and associate professor (HR), faculty of business, University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD).

Dr Jayashree is the brain behind the 'Women in Leadership' series which is a joint initiative by the UOWD and Dubai Business Women's Council (DBWC) - started in October 2015 - to contribute to the dialogue surrounding gender issues and women in corporate leadership and entrepreneurial positions in the UAE.

"Given the DBWC's deep commitment to promote the empowerment of women in the UAE, there was a natural alignment of goals and hence this partnership resulted. This collaboration is endorsed by Dr Raja Al Gurg, head of the DBWC," said Dr Jayashree.

"The series has grown from strength to strength as is evident by the support from emerging and eminent leaders and entrepreneurs from the region who have participated and contributed to the discussions focused on creating gender parity at the workplace," she added.

The objective of the UOWD-DBWC 'Women in Leadership' series aims to enable capacity development and encourage equitable participation of women in the workplace. The series utilises a two-pronged approach to facilitate both bottom-up and top-down engagement through: personal interviews with eminent women leaders from within the region to showcase individual leadership stories and narratives; debates and panel discussions with strategic thinkers and decision-makers from private and public sectors to identify challenges and opportunities for creating inclusive organisational structures and cultures.

"A Gender Balance Council was set up by the UAE government in February 2015 to be led by the Dubai Women Establishment with a mandate to provide equal opportunities for women at the workplace. The nation's commitment to fostering the empowerment of women is further evidenced by a substantive representation of women in the UAE Cabinet" said the PhD holder in organisational behaviour from Delhi University, India.

"There are also equal opportunities provided for UAE women to lead key portfolios in diverse fields including those outside gendered domains, such as energy, space, judiciary and aviation," she added.

She said that at an individual level, all women have to start taking ownership for change. Early socialisation in the pink and blue gender binaries can be very damaging as women end up internalising gender stereotypical expectations regarding what they can and can't do as women. It is important to challenge these negative assumptions. "In addition, organisations [both private and public] have a responsibility to ensure that they create gender-just workplaces focused on fostering diversity and inclusion. Structured gender audits must be conducted across all levels to identify where the gaps exist with regard to representation and equitable representation of women.

"This would mean that implicit biases or stereotypical assumptions, often unconscious, regarding what women can and should do [cited as an important reason for under-representation of women in senior leadership positions] would need to be acknowledged and openly addressed at multiple levels of the organisational hierarchy. Since senior-level positions require cross-functional and strategic understanding, women must be provided opportunities early in their careers to develop these competencies through appropriate work assignments and placements and rewards that are fair and equitable."

Balancing home and work
There is enough evidence to indicate that women still carry the bulk of the responsibility for child care and home and lack of inclusive workspaces can often lead to a leaking pipeline. Organisations have a responsibility to provide family-friendly work environments. However, opportunities such as flexitime can sometimes also be detrimental to women's career growth, especially when it marginalises them from important meetings and visible positions. Retaining a diverse and competent talent pool makes good business sense, and hence solutions to foster diversity and inclusiveness must be arrived at through open dialogue with the group that is directly affected by these decisions.

The UOWD-DBWC Women and Leadership Seminar Series is one such platform that has provided significant opportunities for women within the region (both young students, emerging leaders and entrepreneurs) to engage with inspiring role models who have challenged the status quo. In addition, the involvement of strategic thinkers, legislators, policy makers and industry experts has helped to encourage debates around how to create and nurture inclusive and diverse workplaces.

"As an educator and as an administrator, I am in a privileged position to influence change and have a responsibility to create gender-just learning contexts that challenge stereotypical assumptions and provide opportunities to expand skill sets and mindsets necessary for building intellectual and social capital. It is only through collective engagement and commitment that one can bring about sustainable changes in assumptions," she concluded.

- sandhya@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai