Sheikh Khalifa’s legacy of women equality & empowerment

Mourning the death of the UAE President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has caused the nation to pause and reflect on his visionary leadership and in part, his essential role in driving gender parity.?

Thanks to his government policy measures to tackle gender imbalance, the UAE is now ranked #1 in the Middle Eastern region for female empowerment on the UN Gender Equality Index and 18th globally.?

In addition, the nation has one of the world’s highest rates of female parliamentary representation and 66% of women occupy public sector jobs.?

Female representation is essential, especially across leadership and management, and it is a pivotal step towards advancing gender equality.?

Women leading in business

Recently we have seen 18 major companies who are operating in the UAE have pledged their commitment to put 30% of women into leadership roles by 2025. ?

In the UAE, 50% of small to medium enterprises (SMEs) are women-owned, which are an engine of economic growth for the nation.

SMEs employ about 20% of the workforce and contribute to about 20% of the GDP. Women-led businesses will play a major role in shaping the UAE’s economic diversification.

There are a number of societal barriers to overcome, one of which is how nations will address the growing gender pay gap, which according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2021 will take 135.6 years to close when assessing the worldwide trajectory of salary between genders.?

In 2020, Sheikh Khalifa issued a decree stipulating equal wages for women and men in the private sector to strengthen the UAE’s regional and international commitment to gender equality and to help bridge this gap.?

From public to private sector the UAE is stepping up and setting the pace in advancing women’s opportunities. As it continues its efforts towards equality, diversity, and inclusion – it is important to note that entrepreneurs form the backbone of the UAE economy.

We are seeing this especially across the startup ecosystem bolstered by the government that provide additional funding and encourage business licensing schemes.?

For instance, free zones are aligned to introduce the most accessible ‘Women Entrepreneur Packages’; the cost of licenses for certain categories of business enterprise has also been reduced.

11% of venture capital funding in the UAE went to female-only founders, compared to the international average of just 3% in 2021.?

Sheikh Khalifa continued to builded upon the foundation laid by his father contributing to the reigning legacy of equality for women in the UAE.?

His world leading policy reforms and social development investment seeded the progressive trajectory we see today in female equality across the nation.

While we mourn the loss of a great leader it is thanks to him that we can celebrate the thriving future he has paved forward for Emirati women. ?