Work-life balance now top concern

The Life: Finding the right work-life balance is the top priority for working women, according to research conducted by professional networking site LinkedIn to mark International Women's Day.

Finding the right work-life balance is the top priority for working women, according to research conducted by the professional networking site LinkedIn to mark International Women's Day.

Of the 5,300 women surveyed in 13 countries for the What Women Want@Work study, 63 per cent said success is about achieving the right work-life balance. This is a "dramatic" shift from five years ago when only 39 per cent prioritised that, according to LinkedIn. Back then, women said it was their salary that defined success.

The researchers attributed this shift in priorities to the explosion of smartphones, meaning that many people are always in "work mode" - checking their phones first thing in the morning and last thing at night - and the increasingly blurred line between home and office life. They also highlighted the effects of the global downturn, resulting in everyone having to do more with fewer staff and resources.

While the survey did not include women from the UAE, participants at the Global Women's Leadership Conference in Dubai last week agreed that finding a good work-life balance was among their top priorities.

"It's correct that if you make a balance between your personal life and career it means you are succeeding in your life," said Aisha Ali Al Kamali, who works for the Dubai Women's Network.

However, a number of conference attendees said that achieving professional goals was the main way they defined success.

"For me success is linked to achieving a goal you have," said Roudha bint Butti bin Bishr, who works in the department of forensic science and criminology with Dubai Police. "You have a goal and you build your skills and knowledge to achieve that."

The study also showed that women were more inclined to define success by having an interesting job rather than by the size of their salary.

This is something the women at the leadership conference seemed to agree with.

"Salary is not important. I want to do something interesting," said Ola Shawer, a strategic planning manger for Egyptair in Cairo. "It's important for me to put my fingerprints on something for future generations."

Ms Bishr said she accepted her job with Dubai Police even though she had been offered a higher salary by another organisation.

Ms Shawer said she had suffered from discrimination at work. She described the difficulty of managing men who resented having a female boss.

"I have four men in my department. They make problems all a the time because they do not accept the manager is a woman," she said. "They don't show up for work and they do [shoddy] work."