| Kippreport.com

Female Role

June 30, 2012 7:03 by Reuters

GCC governments have taken a num­ber of steps to improve this situation. In September 2011, Saudi Arabia announced that women would vote and run in munic­ipal elections – an indication of women’s growing stature in the kingdom and the government’s intention to increase their involvement in the country’s future. Saudi Arabia has also implemented national pol­icies – including a five-year plan, Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) programs, and royal decrees – aimed at introducing women into the labor force.

In July last year, the country intro­duced female nationalization targets for private companies (in addition to aggre­gate nationalization quotas, which call for 1.12 million additional jobs for Saudi nationals by 2014).

Qatar is establishing a women’s lead­ership center to increase the number of women in decision-making positions, along with a program to change public perception of women’s role in the Qatari culture. In Kuwait, the government has amended civil service guidelines to grant more-attractive benefits to women, such as social allowance, maternity leave (two months with full pay and two more with half pay), and the ability to sponsor their spouses, among others.

In the UAE, women participate actively in the political sphere, in bod­ies such as the Federal National Coun­cil, local councils, and as ministers in the federal cabinet and local govern­ment bodies, serving as a model for the private sector. However, to achieve the goal of greater employment among na­tional women in the regional workforce, industry cannot wait for governments to impose the change from above.

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