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The Dubai Business Women Council (DBWC) on Sunday announced a partnership with the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) UAE Local Network which will allow businesswomen in the UAE to learn from and collaborate with business professionals from all around the world.
Dr Raja Al Gurg, president of DBWC, spoke about the recent push by businesses in the region towards improving gender diversity in the workplace, and how there is still a misconception about the role of women in the UAE. She also noted that many people around the world had no idea about what women in the UAE were capable of, and that this partnership would work towards highlighting the multiple roles that women in the UAE play.
"Businesses today know that what we need is diversity. The women in this part of the world are being empowered by the country's visionary leadership to take on increasingly challenging roles in a number of different sectors and to set a new standard for themselves," she said.
The new partnership will build on 15 years of work that the DBWC has carried out to support professional women in Dubai via education, training and development opportunities across its network.
The DBWC will assume the local arm of UNGC's global advocacy programme, which supports anti-corruption, human rights, labour standards and environmental practices within a national context.
"With DBWC actively promoting UNGC's principles of equal opportunity, inclusion and non-discrimination in respect of employment and occupation, this partnership will serve as a key contributor in the UAE Vision 2021 objective of seeing the Emirates rank as one of the world's top 25 countries for gender balance," said Al Gurg.
Women's rights
"Joining forces with the UNGC UAE Local Network underlines the instrumental role the Council has played in spearheading the UAE's national agenda to ensure women's rights are at the forefront of national progress."
Speaking about some of the challenges that working women in the UAE still face, Al Gurg revealed that long working hours continue to be an issue for young women who are raising their children or are thinking of starting a family.
"Women in the workforce who are thinking of having children or those that already have young children all face the issue of what their work timings are going to be like and if they can even continue to work with small children. However, a lot of progress has been made in recent years, and we can clearly see many businesses taking steps to make it easier for working mothers by providing day care facilities within their offices for women with very young children," she said.
Under the guidance of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, significant progress has also been made towards the participation of Gulf women in society through initiatives such as the UAE Gender Balance Council formed earlier this year and currently chaired by a woman.
Other notable advancements include women making up 17.5 per cent of the UAE's Federal National Council, the two-to-one, female-male ratio of the UAE's public sector workforce in the UAE and the existence of 20,000 female entrepreneurs in the UAE, which equates to 10 per cent per cent of all Emirati entrepreneurs.
"Efforts to promote the full participation of women in economic development requires support from stakeholders across society, and the UAE is an exemplary embodiment of the UNGC's mission to make global goals local business," said Mahmoud El-Burai, UNGC Local Network representative and CEO of the Dubai Real Estate Institute.
- rohma@khaleejtimes.com
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