- Under the patronage and in the presence of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Dubai -
The Second Arab Women Leadership Forum, DWE’s flagship annual conference, was launched yesterday in the presence of and under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, led by Her Highness Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, President of DWE, wife of HH Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Presidential Affairs.
The Forum this year is being held under the theme “Women’s Leadership in Organizations: Towards New Conceptions of Work-Life Balance”. The opening session yesterday focused on the provision of child-care facilities at the work place and the effect it has on increasing productivity and shaping the social fabric of a community. The first panel discussion that followed talked about ‘Successful childcare initiatives: A case study’ featuring a pilot project conducted by DWE called The National Childcare Program (NCC).
The afternoon session of the Forum was on ‘Policy-makers’ Perspectives’ featured HE Selma Aliye Kavaf Minister for Women and Family Affairs, Turkey and was moderated by Dr. Maha Al-Muneef, Executive Director, Family Protection Program, Saudi Arabia. The session highlighted the fact that international conventions recognize the concept of human rights above gender specific rights.
The second days first session started with Negotiating for Leadership: Exploring negotiation dynamics at home and in the work place the panel addressed the gender gap in leadership by exploring how men and women negotiate for opportunities and resources at work and at home. The panel explored the micro processes that occur daily and identified how they relate to macro phenomena such as the gender gap in leadership in the workplace.
Dr. May Al Dabbagh, Director of the Gender and Public Policy Program, Dubai School of Government, UAE clarified the gender gap between women and men saying: “At the Dubai School of Government We rely highly on experts who specialize in women leadership matters to asses the way individuals express their needs, and we noticed that the interest in negotiating on work matters is increasing between men and women equally.”
Commenting on the session Dr Kathleen McGinn, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development, Harvard Business School, USA stated that company politics worldwide still expect more from the role of men in a company saying: ‘The real problem is that no one is willing to admit that stereotyping still exists therefore making it harder to discuss the issue and enforce change.” Dr. McGinn also emphasized on the importance of negotiating for women saying: “Women are not used to negotiating for themselves, women usually negotiate on behalf of their family and others.” She also pointed out that the source of knowledge a woman relies on to get her information at work is totally different than a man’s which makes a woman on a totally different page when she is negotiating at work.
From her side Sara Laschever, Author and editor at large, and co-author of
‘women don’t ask’ USA discussed the reality of women not knowing the chances they should grab while negotiating their job criteria saying: “based on the opinions of many women from different cultural backgrounds we found that men express their needs four times more than women do that is why men tend to get more privileges at work than women do.” Laschver also stressed on the importance of having women demand what they deserve at work especially since there are no clear guidelines or corporate policies to secure women.
Mr. Soren Viemose, Executive Director, KALOVIG Center, Denmark stressed on the importance of teaching women how to negotiate: “Appointing a designated committee to handle negotiations on behalf of women is crucial just like the ones we have in Denmark, but that also by itself is not enough it is very important for an individual to learn the skills of negotiating.”
“The Arab women to this day has not been granted her full role in some communities, where many corporate policies in many countries are still based on gender differentiation, some Arab countries have rules and regulation which do not take into consideration the environment of a working woman, which clearly reflects that gender equality does not exist in many working entities. That is why it is important for us to highlight the importance of this topic and discuss how it may affect many working woman.” said Aisha Al Suwaidi, Director of Department of women leadership development- DWE; head of the organizing committee of the forum.
