Women leaders in

Middle East
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Table of Contents
Introduction 2

Literature Review 3

Core Ideas 4

Case Studies 6

Conclusion 8

References 9

1
Introduction
The Middle East can be best described as a mosaic of cultural, economic, and
political diversity. Different countries in this region have different natural
resources and demographics. The society has been traditionally a patriarchal
one. There is a prevalence of male dominance in most spheres of the culture
education, politics, business, jobs, etc. The gender roles are clearly and
strongly defined in the culture in this region.

There are several cultural norms that restrict the participation of women
actively in the work space. The Arab personal laws are conservative in
nature. The gender inequality is glaringly visible in the laws. For example in
Saudi Arabia, the women are not allowed to drive. They cannot interact with
men who are not related to them. Daughters inherit only half of what the
sons get. Womens dress code is the most contentious issue. Women need to
cover their heads with Hijab, which many may think of as being oppressive.
The male guardian of a woman (her father, brother or husband) has a legal
right to prohibit a woman from working. There is a cultural pressure on the
women to raise large families. Also, the women are usually confined to
traditional roles because of the cultural norm that talking to other men is
considered a crime for women.

Over the past thirty years, things have changed and women have gradually
started taking up leadership roles in the region.

This paper starts opens with a discussion of various research papers in this
area. This helps to form an idea of the condition of women in leadership
positions, the progress made in the region and the perception of changing
roles for women. These ideas are further discussed with the help of examples
of two women leaders - Lubana Al Olayan and Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi.

2
Literature Review
The Middle East culture has been a topic of interest for many researchers
and scholars. A lot of them have focused on the role and importance of
women in the society. There are various spheres in which women are
involved politics, education, business, etc. Women in politics have been a
topic of various research studies.

In his 2005 research paper titled Qatari Women: A new generation of

leaders, Dr Bahry and Dr Marr talk about the changes in the social strata of
women in Qatar. They talk about the increasing importance of women in the
political sphere of the country. Women have been inducted in the cabinet of
the country and are leading the changing political space.

In her 2006 article titled Building Leaders for the Future: Women in the
Middle East, Deniz Zeynep Luenberger talks about the Women as Global
Leaders Conference held in Abu Dhabi in 2006. She highlights how the
women leaders consider education as the most important tool and share the
desire to have a positive change in the society towards women. The leaders
believe that the future of the middle-east will be driven by women.

In his 2007 research paper on Omani women leader, Al-Lamky talks about
the role of women in the traditionally male-dominated space of policy making
positions. The appointment of women is such positions is seen as an
important phase in the empowerment of women in the region. The
researcher talked to ten professionally successful women from Oman and
found out that the women are highly motivated and ambitious. They value
education and expect to be treated equally with their male counterparts in
their careers.

In his 2008 research paper, titled Women, Management and Globalization in

the Middle East, B.D. Metcalfe discusses the social status of women in the
middle- eastern countries in contrast to their global counterparts. The
patriarchal culture and the prevalence of male-dominance in the public as
well as private work spaces creates several complexities for the women to
advance in leadership roles.

In her 2009 paper titled Women-focused leadership Development in the

Middle East: Generating Local knowledge, Katty Marmenout highlights the
changes in leadership in fast-growing economies such as the Middle East.
The research focused on the career choices of the women in the UAE and the

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challenges that they face. The challenges faced by the women are mainly to
cope with the pressure to raise a large family. The study revealed that the
women are committed to their careers and education, but consider family
more important.

Core ideas
The Arab nations have historically been patriarchal in their culture. The
gender roles have traditionally been strongly segregated and the cultural
norms put several restrictions on women. This has made it difficult for
women to participate freely in the workforce.

However, as seen in the various research papers earlier, the women in the
region are strongly committed to their education and careers, but give equal
or even more importance to their families. Despite several restrictions,
women have been able to do exceptionally well in business as well as
politics.

Women make up about 25% of the total workforce. According to the World
Bank, the women participation rate in the region has grown at a rate of
0.17% annually over the last thirty years.

The GCC countries have set up a policy goal that requires organizations to
accelerate the hiring of women employees. This requires the organizations to
set up separate polices, transportation systems for women. The policy aims
to make women in leadership a normal practice. With the change in the
culture and opening up of the economy, many organizations now support the
participation of women in the workforce.

With the cultural background, the progress has been slow in this regard.
There has been a gradual change in the roles women play in Middle East. The
organizations and government are gradually realizing the importance of
women in the workforce and have committed to make a better
representation of women. Over the past three decades, many women have
taken up senior executive positions in business. Many of them became the
first ever woman to do so in their organizations. Women have been
participating actively in politics and taken up ministerial positions. Many
women have broken the stereotypes and achieved success in their

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endeavours. Women are now heading conglomerates, are cabinet ministers,
are academic and religious leaders, doctors, engineers, lawyers, etc.

Many women leaders in the region support a long term change in the culture
of the region, to be more accepting toward women in powerful positions.
There are a number of organizations such as the Middle East Womens
Leadership Network who are working for equality of gender in the region,
encouraging women to take training, educate themselves, connect with
other women leaders. Many women leaders such as Sheikha Lubna Al
Qasimi, Rola Dashti, Lubana Al Olayan, etc are role models for the young
women in the region. They want to ensure that all the women have
education opportunities and are allowed to pursue their dreams.

While several women have been successful in business and political spheres,
it can be seen that the importance to raise and nurture their families remains
a top priority. I have taken up the examples of the following two influential
women leaders to discuss the issue.

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Case Studies
Example 1 Lubana Al Olayan

In the Forbes 100 Most Powerful Arab Women in Business of 2015, Lubana Al
Olayan was named as the most influential woman in the Arab business world.
She is the CEO of Saudi Arabias Olayan Financing, operating close to forty
companies in the region. She was born in August 1955 to Sulaiman Olayan
and Maryam bint Jassim Al Abdulwahab. She is married to John Xefos, an
International lawyer working as a Partner at Baker and Mckenzie.

She did her graduation from Cornell University. She joined her fathers
business in 1983, being one of the privileged few women to do that. She was
the only woman in the company having 4,000 employees. Since her joining,
she has increased the number of women in the workforce to around 400. She
provided all the facilities to the women working in her company separate
washrooms, workspaces, prayer rooms, canteens, and transportation. She
commands tremendous influence in the Arab region.

In 2004, she became the first Saudi woman to deliver an opening keynote
speech at the Jeddah Economic Forum. She is also the first Saudi woman to
be elected to a board position in the Saudi Hollandi Bank in the Kingdom in
2004. She has been regularly in the Forbes Most influential Arab Women list
since 2005. In 2010, she was awarded the Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year.
She also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Arab Thought Foundation that
works to focus on the issues faced by the Arab world.

Example 2 Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi

Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi sits at number one position in the Forbes 100 Most
Powerful Arab Women in Politics in 2015. She is the Minister of State for
Tolerance of the UAE since February 2016. She was earlier the Minister of
State for International Cooperation. She became the first woman to hold a
cabinet ministerial position in the UAE, when in 2004 she was named the
Minister of Economy and Planning. She is a member of the ruling family of
Sharjah. She is also the 42nd most powerful woman in the world, according to
Forbes ranking in 2016.

She has graduated from California State University with a Bachelors Degree
in Computer Science and did her Executive MBA from American University of
Sharjah. She started her career as a software engineer in the USA. She came

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back to the UAE in 1981 and worked for Dubai Ports Authority. In 1999, she
won the Distinguished Government Employee Award in 1999. After her
success in the job, she was recognized by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed
Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Defence Minister,
who appointed her as the head of a new online marketplace, Tejari.com in
2000. She has been a successful businesswoman and lead Tejari.com to
become the most famous marketplace in the country.

In her tenure as Minister, she has been involved in unprecedented

philanthropy to foreign nations. She aims for International peace.

Sheikha Lubna is also very proud of the culture that she comes from. She
respects the traditions and is always seen wearing a Hijab. She takes pride in
being able to motivate women of the country to be educated and take
important role in the society.

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Conclusion
From the analysis, we can see that historically the middle-east region has
seen a strong gender divide, with clearly defined roles. There are several
cultural norms that pose restrictions to women. However, the society has
seen gradual change in the attitude of organizations and government
towards the role women play. Women can be seen in the top leadership
positions in several organizations, in academics and in politics as well. More
non-traditional roles are being opened up to women now. Women like
Sheikha Lubna have climbed the stairs of success in business as well as in
politics, while respecting their tradition and culture.

In conclusion, it can be said that the women in middle-east share the

common desire for education and commitment towards their professional
advancement, while revering their culture and tradition. The society is
undergoing change in attitude towards the role of women. With the support
of their families, a significant number of women in the region have been able
to break the barriers and become influential faces in their fields. However, in
my opinion in order to be able to compete with their global counterparts, the
Arab nations need to make amendments in the personal laws and become
more accepting of gender equality.

8
References

Marmenout, K. (2009). Women-focused leadership development in the Middle

East: Generating local knowledge

Moore, L. L. (2012). Worldly leadership through local knowledge: Discovering

voices of Emirati women business leaders. In Worldly Leadership (pp. 171-
191). Palgrave Macmillan UK

Kemp, L. J. (2011, November). Female business leaders in the United Arab

Emirates: an investigation of their presence, value, characteristics and
experiences. In First Emerging Research Paradigms in Business and Social
Sciences International Conference, Dubai, UAE

Al-Lamky, A. (2007). Feminizing leadership in Arab societies: the

perspectives of Omani female leaders. Women in management
Review, 22(1), 49-67

Metcalfe, B. D. (2008). Women, management and globalization in the Middle

East. Journal of Business Ethics, 83(1), 85-100

Bahry, L., & Marr, P. (2005). Qatari women: a new generation of

leaders?. Middle East Policy, 12(2), 104

Leuenberger, Deniz Zeynep (2006). Building Leaders for the Future: Women
in the Middle East. Bridgewater Review, 25(2), 3-6.