Introduction
In the context of UAE demographics, the population of Dubai has been rightfully considered the most diverse in terms of age, income, and socio-ethnic background, as this city is a conglomerate for tourists, business visitors, and migrants from the Asian region. Thus, the current population of Dubai constitutes nearly 3.5 million people, with men accounting for nearly 66% of the demographic (Dubai Statistics Center, 2021). Out of the population, as many as 3 million residents are expatriates, and only nearly 400 thousand people are native Dubai residents (Dubai Statistics Center, 2021). The expatriate community is mostly comprised of Asian residents from developing or underdeveloped countries, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Iran, Nepal, and China (“Population,” 2019). Undeniably, there are also visitors from developed countries who come to Dubai for professional and business purposes.
Being the most populous region in the UAE, Dubai is mostly populated by middle-aged residents from the 25-39 age group, constituting nearly 1.5 million people (Statista, 2019). The majority of the population has an intermediate or a university degree, with illiteracy rates being as low as 2% (Dubai Statistics Center, 2021). Such a statistic may contribute to promising employment rates and income, as according to Statista (2021), the GDP per capita in the UAE is currently nearly $40,000. The unemployment rates are reported to be less than 1% in Dubai, constituting nearly non-existent poverty rates in the region (Dubai Statistics Center, 2021). Thus, Dubai has seemingly no explicit issues related to social well-being of the population.
However, according to some primary sources, the poverty in Dubai, although disclaimed economically, manifests itself in various ways. For example, there is a problem of poor and discriminatory living conditions for migrant workers who constitute the majority of the labor force (Mirandette, 2017). The health status of the population is gradually improving, but the “aging” trend of the population can be traced due to increasing life expectancy and decreasing fertility rates (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation [IHME], 2020). Primary resources for health costs coverage come from public initiatives. The most common death causes for the population include diabetes, stroke, and ischemic heart disease (IHME, 2020). Hence, nowadays, Dubai is a rapidly developing area in terms of social welfare that still requires a series of interventions to the socio-demographic trends to secure income equality for Dubai residents, business owners, and migrant labor force.
Social Needs in Dubai
The statistics above demonstrate that currently, there are no explicit issues in the access to such social needs as health or education, as the UAE is capable of covering basic needs for the population. However, a fundamental and alarming issue existing in the area is the lack of social mobility, equality, and respect for basic human rights. While the government of the UAE allocates the majority of its funds to business, manufacturing, and telecommunications, the local population does not have access to such social needs as freedom of expression. Apart from the latter, according to Amnesty International (2020), the social issues also tackle involuntary detention, the death penalty, unfair trial, gender and sex discrimination, and sexual and reproductive rights violation.
The issue of women’s rights in this context may be rightfully considered as one of the most alarming and ethically inappropriate. Although Dubai and the UAE, in particular, are considered the most progressive in Western Asia in terms of human rights, where women are legally allowed to gain education, drive, and work, women still struggle with a series of dehumanizing rights limitations. Thus, the actions of women in Dubai still have to be supervised by their legal “guardians” represented by a male family member or husband (Human Rights Watch, 2021). Moreover, the UAE laws still condone legal responsibility for premarital and same-sex sexual intercourse (Amnesty International, 2020).
The situation has drawn much attention after the precedent took place in Dubai this year. Princess Latifa, the Dubai ruler’s daughter, reached out to BBC to inform them she was held hostage by her father in a “jail villa” after a failed free attempt in 2018 (Nagesh, 2021). Furthermore, along with the evidence on severe human rights violations, the research demonstrates that the UAE educational system implicitly discriminates the image of women in school textbooks, portraying men as more powerful and intelligent (Al-Qatawneh & Rawashdeh, 2019). Hence, it is reasonable to assume that the issue of women’s rights has been central to the socio-economic and cultural context of Dubai.
Currently, this issue has been addressed by a series of new legal regulations that enhance the freedom of women’s self-expression, safety, autonomy. Thus, over the past years, the local court has initiated the criminalization of domestic abuse, which was legally permitted previously (Nagesh, 2021). Moreover, the sphere of a “guardian’s” approval has been limited to the permission to officially justify a marriage. As far as businesses are concerned, the most recently adopted policy addressed by the management boards is the introduction of “gender quotas” to employment. Thus, according to Elbahrawy et al. (2021), out of more than eighty board members of large Dubai enterprises, only three were women. Hence, according to the newly introduced regulation, the board of every large enterprise in Dubai is now to have at least one woman as a legitimate board representative.
Apart from the public policies, there are other examples of women’s empowerment in business. For example, according to Holleis (2021), the Mars space program located in the UAE accounts for nearly 80% of women on the science team, with Noura al-Matroushi being the first female astronaut from the Middle East. However, while the UAE laws encourage gender equality by means of quotas, there is no legislation to explicitly promote gender and ethnic equality in the workplace. According to Omar & Pacheco (2021), even when allowed to apply for corporate jobs, many women are discouraged by both the cultural stigma and the mal employers’ expectations for women to perform equally regardless of supporting children. Such a decision, in this case, is a shortcoming rather than a long-term solution to the alarming problem of social inequality and injustice. Indeed, women are accepted on boards not because of their expertise but due to the quota requirements.
Another major indicator that the issue is not resolved correctly is the existence of the so-called achievement gap. According to recent studies, the majority of the future workforce based on the graduation indicators are women, as they comprise nearly 70% of university graduates (Ashour, 2020). Hence, the number of female business leaders does not correspond to the number of female graduates on an annual basis.
For this reason, a social enterprise, Aurora 50, was established. It serves to address this issue and create a community of female leaders in the Middle East and Dubai, in particular, who would support young women to become the advocates of change (“Out impact,” n.d.). There are several initiatives pursued by the enterprise to secure gender equality in business, namely Manarat and Pathway 20 programs.
Their sphere of competence includes empowering, training, and educating women under the mentorship of other successful women. The social enterprise also presents companies who have Aurora 50 membership with a pool of female applicants ready to embrace leading positions in the companies (“Our impact,” n.d.). One of the remarkable benefits of this initiative, unlike the aforementioned legislations in enhancing gender quotas, is that the organization aims at working simultaneously with women willing to become board members and companies hesitant about how gender equality may affect performance.
Conclusion
By establishing a dialogue between the two parties, the process of inviting women to board positions across the Middle East enterprises can be accelerated dramatically. For example, compared to 28 out of 112 UAE’s listed companies, nearly 50% of the companies have met the gender equality requirement in 2021 after using Aurora 50’s professional assistance (“Insights,” n.d.). Undeniably, the social enterprise has the drawback of focusing solely on the leadership positions for women, so there is a need to create a similar business initiative for all the types of employment. Hence, considering these facts, it becomes evident that Aurora 50 is a social enterprise capable of securing change in the women’s representation on the board and in the business segment in general.
Summary of the Research
Having closely investigated the demographics of Dubai, I have reached a conclusion that the progress and economic prosperity still do not affect the social issue of representing women in the workforce. Although it is a goal outlined in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the number of female business leaders remains unprecedentedly low. When speaking of Dubai, it becomes evident that while some public policies try to force the companies into engaging with women by implementing gender quotas on the boards, little is done to empower women to eliminate the social stigma and strive for career achievements instead of the guardian’s service. For this reason, the support of such enterprises as Aurora 50 is essential to motivate women and fight for equality in all aspects of social and professional life.
References
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