In recent years, women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have made unprecedented gains as a vital part of the region’s workforce. A pioneering generation of younger women are more likely than ever to go to work and remain in employment to fulfil their career ambitions. They are highly educated and motivated, and are increasingly visible across the public and private sectors, from roles in policymaking and diplomacy to entrepreneurship and corporate leadership.
Their progress is momentous, but the region has yet to reap the full potential of women in the workforce. Only 40% of working-age women in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are in employment, compared with 64% across the OECD. In Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the region’s three largest economies, less than 20% of all senior managers are female. Employers across the region must take a direct interest in understanding how to meet and support the professional aspirations of younger women through better diversity strategies and concrete actions, in order to attract and retain this next generation of talent.
With this goal in mind, in January 2022 we conducted a survey on attitudes to work among 1,500 women aged 18 to 35 across the following countries: Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. In total, these countries are home to around 81 million women and have a combined GDP of around $2 trillion.
(PWC)
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