Numbers paint a picture that is more powerful and revealing than many wordy expositions. The UAE’s progress in achieving a gender balance, boosting the role of women in nation-building and empowering the girl child are all encapsulated in an impressive escalation of figures, year-upon-year. The World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report posts the UAE as a regional leader in gender equality with illiteracy rates as low as 7.3 per cent in 2015. This laudable achievement is among the many in UAE’s dynamic development, a fact that was reiterated at the Investing in the Future: Building the Resilience of Women and Girls in the Arab Region conference that concluded in Dubai on Thursday.
The statistical 49.3 per cent composition of women in the country’s population is a pointer to its dividends across the spectrum — from education, career, entrepreneurship to governance, Emirati women are raising their, and their country’s, profile with felicity and vigour. Sixty six per cent of nationals in UAE’s labour market are Emirati women, who also comprise 38 per cent in the banking sector, managing investments exceeding Dh12 billion. A third of the members in the UAE Cabinet are Emirati women.
All these figures are a fruition of the UAE’s clear-sightedness, which from very early on had recognised and pursued with determination its national policies and strategies that are inclusive of women and pivoted on gender equality. In making these imperatives become some of the most important drivers of its progress, the UAE has truly set the pace in the region.
The conference’s strong message — that the UAE is going beyond empowering women, to empowering society through women — is a reality that will chart the path towards more milestones.
