Progress starts with a seat for women at the table

Delegates and attendees at the Global Women's Forum in Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai. Pawan Singh / The National

Gender equality, despite many efforts, is nowhere near as all-encompassing as it ought to be. We live in a time in which human rights are unevenly distributed. In some societies with particularly extreme disparities, girls are not allowed to go to school or even leave the home. Despite sobering global realities, however, there are also noteworthy and consistent efforts under way to support the cause of women.

To this end, a two-day Global Women's Forum is being held in Dubai this week. In the lead up to it, Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed, President of the Gender Balance Council and the Dubai Women Establishment, praised the contributions of Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Mother of the Nation, in promoting women's empowerment in the UAE.

At the highest levels of governance, the UAE has been walking the walk in championing women's empowerment for years. In 2018, a formal directive was passed allocating 50 per cent of seats on the Federal National Council to women. Of the country's ministers, 29 per cent are women.

Considering that the FNC's main job is to assess draft laws and pass, amend or reject them, it is important for women to have a seat at that table and use their judgment and influence to chart a path forward for the nation. This balanced composition is relatively rare in the world – in only six countries, including the Emirates, are at least half of members women.

Women have been on boards of companies in the UAE for decades. Their proactive role in business and governance goes beyond mere tokenism. It’s undeniable that the participation of women in fields earlier dominated by men is gradually changing. Just one example is Nora Al Matrooshi, the first female Emirati astronaut. She was one of the speakers at this year’s Global Women's Forum.

With 4,000 participants and more than 250 speakers from 65 countries, the Forum heard on the first day from Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed, chairwoman of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, who spoke of the power and role of Arab women throughout history.

Emine Erdogan, Turkey's first lady, gave one of the keynote speeches, highlighting the importance of female leadership in advocating for women’s rights. Other high-profile guests over two days included Aseefa Bhutto Zardari, a Pakistani politician and daughter of the country's President Asif Ali Zardari, and Iceland's former first lady, Eliza Reid.

All the speakers at the event, most of them women, know the challenges that are yet to be overcome to achieve a gender-equal world, be it in politics, governance, the arts or technology and business. Their experiences are a sliver of a broader reality.

The wide-ranging backgrounds of women in the global workforce underline what they bring to the table – including diversity of viewpoints, perspective and vastly different experiences – not just from men but from one another. These are advantages that in any field make for better, more informed decision-making.

In any country in the world, women's participation and inclusion in all areas of the workforce is necessary for any modern society to stay on the path of progress.