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Achieving equality for women is not merely a moral or political issue, nor is it solely related to the need for social justice that can be achieved through a gender approach to social problems: it is, in fact, an economic necessity par excellence.
In fact, societies that have been successful in more fully and effectively integrating women into the workforce and promoting them to leadership positions have achieved greater quantitative and qualitative economic gains than societies that have lagged behind in achieving equality. Additionally, research from Catalyst, an organization that has worked with large corporations for decades to achieve gender equality within government and business, found that Fortune 500 companies that promote women to leadership positions achieve 35% higher shareholder returns than companies with the lowest rates of female participation in leadership positions.
This means that women bring different managerial skills and qualifications to leadership, enriching business management with added value that translates into additional profits for shareholders. However, this does not mean that the advantages that women bring when they assume leadership positions are inherent capabilities as women, but that they bring their own added value to their work due to their unique social, economic and cultural experiences in society. This experience is formed through a long process of dealing with a cultural environment marked by stereotypes and patriarchal and sexist “norms”, a challenge that gives a unique flavor to success, brings unique leadership skills and produces significantly enriched management skills.
Foreign Policy Analytics, in its report, “Women as a Lever: Unleashing the Power of Women to Transform Male-Dominated Industries,” states that “companies in the top quartile with the highest percentage of women in C-suite positions have, on average, 47% higher revenues than those in the bottom quartile.” Additionally, companies that adopt gender-based inclusion policies reduce their negative climate impacts, are significantly more socially responsible, and create an internal culture based on inclusion, diversity, and equality (ibid.). These aspects benefit productivity, customer relationships, talent motivation, and overall profits.
Meanwhile, the McKinsey Global Institute report “Advancing Women’s Equality Could Add $12 Trillion to the Global Economy” concludes that promoting women’s integration into the labor market and achieving gender equality, including by reducing leadership and salary gaps, could add $12 trillion to global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025. Countries and companies that invest in integrating women into the workforce, do not perpetuate the gender wage gap, and give women the opportunity to take on positions of responsibility and management will see significant growth in their GDP.
GDP grows when capital goods, labor markets, technology, and human capital develop. In this regard, many countries, especially Arab countries, rely on capital goods (investments with fixed capital) and import technological solutions, but, with some exceptions, do not take adequate measures to open the labor market to women and generally do not invest in the quality of human capital. According to the Arab NGO Development Network study “Drivers of low female labor force participation in the Arab region – political economy vs culture”, the labor market integration rate of women in Arab countries does not exceed 19%, compared to 47% globally and 46% in low- and middle-income countries.
This means that Arab economies do not develop at a level comparable to Western, Asian, African and American countries. This is because four-fifths of women in the Arab world do not participate in the economic cycle. The reasons are manifold, including cultural, legal and political sources of inhibitions and obstacles. However, in my opinion, most of the factors are economic. If women are not entrusted with higher responsibilities in public administration, the inequality in promotion negatively impacts women’s salaries. Thus, even in public administration, which is supposed to treat men and women equally, discrimination is structural. Although the basic salary is similar, more men than women have the opportunity to be promoted, resulting in a huge inequality in pay.
There are even greater inequalities in the private sector in the Arab world, where women are preferred over men in certain manual jobs (e.g., textiles, agriculture-related), but are paid below the minimum wage and are not promoted to supervisory or line manager positions. This makes the private sector (a source of employment in all free economies) less attractive in Arab countries. In addition to this, technical jobs in fields that require advanced engineering skills are reserved for men rather than women. Not only are women oriented towards the service sector, but in many Arab countries and other countries of the global south, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is considered a man’s job. The absence of women in technical leadership positions is therefore due to a combination of weak supply (e.g., the number of female engineers) and weak demand (the belief that men are better suited for complex field-based technical jobs).
Arab countries are therefore called upon to increase the attractiveness of the private sector by focusing on pay equality, respecting minimum wages, and rewarding companies that place women in middle and senior management positions. Investing in improving working conditions by providing special facilities for women in the workplace, such as dedicated nursing and childcare rooms and special sanitary facilities for women’s menstrual needs, will make the workplace more attractive to women. It is also necessary to enact legislation requiring companies, especially large ones, to publish annual reports on reducing gender disparities at all levels. Measures of this indicator include the number of men and women in the company, pay equality, and the number of women in line, middle and senior management positions. Board and management membership is another indicator that should be reported regularly.
Arab countries must harness the enormous potential of their women, especially at a time when education is widespread and opportunities to attend university are expanding. Closing the gap between Arab countries and the rest of the world will take years, but it can only be achieved through proactive policies such as affirmative action, investments in improving the attractiveness of key economic sectors, promoting wage equality, and equity in access, retention, and promotion. After all, women’s participation is an economic imperative and will increase Arab countries’ economic growth by around 2-3 percentage points in the long run. This opportunity must not be squandered by a fruitless debate about the role of women in Arab societies, which has been going on for too long. We must free half of Arab society from the constraints that prevent women from contributing to the prosperity and growth of Arab economies and protect the region’s countries from the risks and causes of chronic underdevelopment.
