Photography by Laurence Laborie and styled by Tara Ziegfeld for the December issue of Vogue Arabia
A new survey by online job site Bayt.com has revealed that the United Arab Emirates is the easiest place in the Middle East for women to find jobs. Three out of four women in the UAE believe that job offers are based entirely on experience and qualifications, regardless of gender. This figure surpasses the regional average and places the Gulf country as the number-one place in the MENA region for women to find a job.
The data for the “Working Women in the Middle East and North Africa” survey was collected online from during October and November, with more than 4,000 women in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates taking part. But what is it about the UAE that makes it so attractive to career-driven women? Let’s look at the stats:
Gender Equality
The study found that women in the UAE are more content with the gender balance in the workplace than women in other MENA regions. Of the women surveyed, 73% said they are comfortable working in a mixed-gender environment, while 70% of the working women reported that they work almost an equal number of hours as their male colleagues.
Workplace Challenges
The top three workplace challenges cited by working women in the UAE are: less opportunity for promotions (44%); a stressful and demanding work environment (37%); and a lack of or insufficient job training (30%). However, most of the women surveyed believed that women and men were treated equally in their places of work.
