Introduction
Promoting workplace equality from a gender perspective is a social issue that is increasingly being raised in the context of national policies in different countries. The UAE has become one of the states that have taken real steps to create conditions for diverse and impartial recruitment of employees. Specific legislative initiatives have made it possible to address the issue of gender balance, and creating a special body promoting the idea of equality in the workplace has become a significant factor.
To obtain a comprehensive picture of the topic in question, the following question should be addressed: what measures have contributed to establishing gender balance in the workplace in the UAE? This literature review is aimed at highlighting relevant social trends in the UAE in recent decades with regard to gender balance, the value of new legislative initiatives, and specific advances in this area. Relevant academic sources and legislative documents may help obtain credible findings and make predictions about future research directions.
Definitions
To begin with, this is necessary to define several concepts that make up the essence of the analysis. Among them, one should mention gender balance, women empowerment, and professional legitimacy. Zhang and Yu (2019) assess gender balance in terms of both social responsibility and legal requirements. This concept implies an equal approach to recruiting staff without applying the criterion for the separation of workers by gender. The term is more commonly utilized to address women’s employment issues because they are more likely to face prejudice in the workplace due to social prejudice.
According to Dipke (2021, 55), “women empowerment is the pre-eminent contraption to expand women’s ability to have resources and to make strategic life choices”. In the workplace, this is manifested in providing women with equal opportunities for professional growth based on their personal skills and abilities. Finally, Goby (2020) defines professional legitimacy as a concept that regulates labor relations at the legislative level. In the context of the topic in question, the right of women to equal access to employment and career growth is assumed. All the concepts presented are interrelated and discussed in the literature review.
Gender Balance in the UAE in Recent Decades
Since its foundation, the UAE has always been a country where social development priorities have been actively promoted. The influx of migrants from the Middle and the Far East in the 1990s was one of the reasons why the factors of equality and status in society began to be discussed. According to Al-Jenaibi (2017, 2), during that period, the country was “under increased pressure to appropriately employ and manage people of diverse cultural and racial backgrounds”. As a rapidly growing state with great trade opportunities, the UAE could not pursue archaic principles of social stratification, including gender inequality. An open policy of a gender-focused recruitment system would mean a slowdown in social development and the loss of potential trading partners.
As Forster (2017) states, at the end of the 20th century, the country made a significant transition from canon policies of social stratification to more advanced and modern principles of equality. This movement had a positive impact on the promotion of workplace balance and contributed to creating equal conditions for the realization of the professional potential of both men and women.
At the same time, despite these positive developments, at the beginning of the 21st century, women in the UAE had some difficulties in moving up the career ladder. Miller, Kyriazi, and Paris (2017, 24) address these issues, and as one of the barriers, the authors mention “the glass ceiling”. This is the absence of the possibility of vertical movement upward for leadership positions. Compared to many other states, this phenomenon was less pronounced in the UAE because the country had demonstrated a relatively high level of inclusive labor policies since its inception (Miller, Kyriazi, and Paris 2017). Nevertheless, the women of the country also felt the existence of such a barrier, which was due to several factors, particularly the double burden and the challenge of maintaining a normal work-life balance.
Religious values of the UAE have always imposed special obligations on women, and attempts to devote too much time to a personal career to the detriment of the family were rarely perceived positively by their loved ones. As a result, even despite the attempts to maintain gender balance, including in leadership positions, the female population of the UAE felt a bias caused by social and religious rather than labor factors. Moreover, as Rabe-Hemp and Garcia (2020) argue, in some spheres, biased hiring practices were particularly acute.
The researchers describe the areas traditionally considered masculine, including law enforcement, and note the segregation policy tacitly promoted in the country (Rabe-Hemp and Garcia 2020). This means that, despite the formal right to hold positions in such an area, women were limited in career opportunities and did not have adequate legal support. However, steps to implement diversity in recruitment strategies had already been taken by that time, which indicates the interest of labor unions in productive interaction among employees, regardless of their gender.
The situation changed for the better in the late 2000s and early 2010, which, nevertheless, was facilitated by negative factors. As Forster (2017) states, during that period, the UAE faced an economic decline, and socio-cultural criteria that largely determined gender factors in the workplace faded into the background. To regain the status of one of the world leaders, the country had to make significant changes to the programs of control over various aspects of state development, including the labor market. This led to the foundation of the Gender Balance Council in the country in 2015, which, according to Goby (2020), was one of the watersheds in the struggle for equality in the workplace between men and women. In 2018, among all the GCC countries, the UAE received UN approval as the state with one of the highest levels of workplace equality (United Arab Emirates: Ministry of Finance 2020). Today, more than half of positions in government entities are held by women, which testifies to the success of this legislative initiative. As a result, the entire improvement period took several decades, but the really significant shifts occurred a few years ago.
Effects of the Establishment of New Legislations
Due to new legislations introduced in the UAE, the gender balance in the country has been relatively improved. According to World Bank (2021), the first significant step was the removal of restrictions for women to get a job. Such a legal framework would be sufficient justification to promote women empowerment as a social concept. However, Abdulkadir and Müller (2020), who study this phenomenon, note that, despite the law, discrimination persists in certain industries since even legal provisions do not guarantee a shift in socio-cultural perception of labor principles. Although, among the GCC countries, the UAE occupies one of the leading places in the context of women labor empowerment, in the global context, for 2016, the state ranked 124th out of 144 (Abdulkadir and Müller 2020). Such a low indicator is indicative of a continuing problem. At the same time, over the past five years, the situation has changed for the better, as research shows.
Gender discrimination in the workplace has declined, and even in areas traditionally considered male, more women have become involved. As Patterson, Varadarajan, and Salim (2020) note, the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics sector, or STEM, demonstrates a higher number of female employees, and although the pace of advancement is slow, it is stable. One of the examples of a national strategy to work in this direction is the adoption of the law on equal wages for men and women in 2018 (U.ae. 2021b). This step has strengthened the legal framework for the protection of women’s rights to fair pay, regardless of gender. As a result, this initiative had a positive impact on gender balance in the workplace because more UAE females were given an opportunity to self-develop professionally and receive fair wages.
A strong legal framework has been a valuable factor in addressing existing constraints and restrictions on women’s work and gender discrimination in the workplace. Tahir and El Baradie (2019) affirm the value of the legal environment as a regulatory background that controls the relationship between cognitive and professional perceptions of working conditions. Moreover, the national projects to promote gender balance and professional legitimacy have not stopped exclusively at workplace initiatives. In accordance with presidential directives, in 2019, women’s representation in parliamentary elections was increased to 50%, which also proves positive developments (United Arab Emirates: Ministry of Finance 2020).
In terms of the socio-cultural aspect, as Tahir and El Baradie (2019) state, the situation has changed compared to several decades earlier. In their study, the researchers found that respondents confirmed that there were no significant religious restrictions on women in the context of managing finances and doing business independently of their husbands (Tahir and El Baradie 2019). All these results confirm the positive effect of the new legislations on the aspect of gender balance in the workplace in the UAE.
Role of the Gender Balance Council in Promoting Gender Balance
The establishment of the Gender Balance Council in 2015 was a significant decision on the road to promoting gender balance in the workplace in the UAE. This normative act set itself a number of objectives to achieve in the near future. Among them, one should mention the reduction of the gender gap in the government fields of the country and the increase of professional competencies in recruitment services in the context of diversity management (U.ae 2021a). In addition to the oversight function of the Council, its powers also include making recommendations for strengthening the current legislation and adopting agreements to eliminate the problem of gender discrimination in the country (UAE Gender Balance Control Council 2020). All these possibilities underline the importance of this body in the context of the issue under consideration and reflect the interest of the state in eliminating the corresponding challenges and gaps.
While analyzing specific results of establishing the Council, many authors compare indicators from different areas from the perspective of the ratio of male to female staff. For instance, Fadahunsi and Barake (2018, 51) argue that “21% of employed Emirati females work in banking and financial institutions compared to only 4% of males”. In other areas, such as information technology, positive changes can also be observed. Margheri (2016) considers the establishment of the Gender Balance Council as one of the incentives to increase the number of women in the high-tech and advanced engineering spheres. As a result, the modern IT field of the UAE is diverse from a gender perspective, which corresponds to the trend of innovative social policy. Thus, the Council’s role has proved to be important, as evidenced by the expansion of the number of vacancies for females in various industries.
Conclusion
The establishment of this board was welcomed by the authorities, which testifies to the government’s interest in addressing the gender gap in the labor market. Kamøy (2021) analyzes legislative initiatives leading to this decision and notes that this board was approved by the Emirates Human Rights Association. Through partnerships with various government agencies, the Council targets its mission as efficiently as possible. The interaction with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, local authorities, and other bodies allows it to address the issues related to gender balance at different levels, thereby covering multiple objectives comprehensively (UAE Gender Balance Control Council 2020). Therefore, from the standpoint of importance in promoting gender balance in the UAE, the Council has played a significant role and helped expand labor opportunities for the female population by addressing controversial socio-cultural aspects.
References
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