By: Dalia Mansour
“Be Bold For Change.” It’s a message intended to push people toward concrete action on gender equality for a stronger economy. Sponsoring that theme, as well as, celebrating the Women’s International Day, on the 9th of March 2017, Dubai Business Women Council (DBWC), has teamed up with the University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Organisations from a cross-section of Dubai’s business sectors offered valuable success insights in to how the region’s private and public sectors have transformed prevailing gender parity issues into rewarding business solutions. Panelists included speakers from different economic sectors and different countries; Richad Soundardji, Middle East Regional CEO of Societe Generale, Dubai; Argen Radder, CEO of Philips Middle East & Turkey; ‘Andrew Mortimer’ Managing director of Barclays Plc; LubnaQassem, Executive VP of Emirates NBD and Moosa Al-Moosa, president of Dow Chemical.
The forum was seen as a milestone in the UAE’s drive to lead the region in improving gender balance. “The UAE is a nation committed to providing equal opportunities to enable women to play a lead role in contributing to the country’s development. It is only when the contributions of both men and women are valued equally that we can achieve a brighter future, full of ideas with input from people across society. DBWC provides a valuable platform to stimulate proactive thinking that will facilitate greater action towards achieving gender parity in the workplace”, commented Her Excellency Dr. Raja Al Guru, President, DBWC.
As people worldwide celebrated the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, forum speakers and panelists encouraged society to be bold in accelerating change for women in their business strategies.
UOWD’s Associate Dean in the Faculty of Business and Principal Investigator for the UOWD-DBWC Women and Leadership research project, Dr. Payyazhi Jayashree said,“We are currently working to develop a framework that outlines the factors which influence female workplace engagement and the achievement of leadership roles. The opportunity to engage the wider business community in discussion around the key themes of our joint research project will positively influence the journey from theory to public policy and practice – not only in the UAE but the across GCC region as a whole”.
Mr. Richad Soundardjee commented, ”For a leader, inclusiveness is a must, but at the same time it’s not enough because we have to recognise that the gap exists. In that kind of case, you need to have the change agent in your organisation to help you permeate the organisation in that agenda”.
While the forum shed light on the UAE’s proven success in inclusive organisational cultures, it pointed to severe gender inequality and pay gap within the international labour market. “UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 includes ensuring women’s full and effective participation in leadership at all levels of decision making in political, economic and public life. Women are strong, capable leaders and we all have something to learn from their values”, commented Frode Mauring, United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator & UNDP Resident Representative, a.i.
Each of us – with women, men and non-binary people joining forces – can be a leader within our own spheres of influence by taking bold pragmatic action to accelerate gender parity. Through purposeful collabouration, we can help women advance and unleash the limitless potential offered to economies allover the world
