To quote the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, Marie Curie, ‘The way of progress was neither swift nor easy’. While this extract aptly summarises the collective struggle of female scientists to achieve recognition in their field, there can be no doubt that progress has certainly been made in the pursuit of gender equality.
According to the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Gender Gap Report, the UAE has essentially reached equality between men and women in educational attainment.
Official figures show that 95 percent of female high school graduates go on to pursue higher education (compared with 80 percent of the male students). Women constitute 71.6 percent of college graduates in the country.
This approach has benefited the nation’s economy as well as our society. Female business owners account for 10 percent of the total private sector. Female business owners constitute 15 percent of the members of the boards of directors of the chambers of commerce and industry.
Women occupy 51 percent of public sector jobs – one of the highest proportions worldwide, including 30 percent of senior leadership positions associated with decision-making roles. Women occupy 75 percent of positions in the education and health sectors.Â
Importantly, the government’s ongoing quest to turn the UAE into a thriving knowledge-based economy means there is a deep commitment to developing a STEM-ready workforce to prepare the next generation to excel in the digital age – which is vital to the future of technology-led start-ups.
Innovation is a central pillar of the UAE’s plans to build a highly competitive economy, and there is an abundance of research and evidence to demonstrate that diversity is highly conducive to innovation.
A 2019 report by McKinsey & Company revealed that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 25 percent more likely to have above average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile.
_0.jpg?ea1k5KM1)
An overwhelmingly male-dominated investment landscape is just one of the reasons why female-led start-ups may receive less funding
Encouraging entrepreneurs
And yet whilst the number of women pursuing careers in STEM in the UAE is on the rise, this trend is, unfortunately, not reflected in the start-up sphere. According to a 2019 report by Arabnet, in partnership with The Mohammed Bin Rashid Establishment for SME Development (Dubai SME), just 14 percent of regional investments in start-ups across the MENA region in 2018 were with start-ups founded by women.
An overwhelmingly male-dominated investment landscape is just one of the reasons why female-led start-ups may receive less funding. There are, of course, several ways to tackle this issue; an obvious one being that more women must be included in the investment decision-making process.
However, it is equally important to understand how, as a society, we can encourage women who want an independent path to pursue being a job creator rather than a job holder.Â
Progress can, and should, never fall on the shoulders of just a few entitles. Rather, as a business community we must work together to bring female entrepreneurs and investors together; and this must form part of a shared vision, for it is the entire society that will reap the benefits of female empowerment.
One notable example is the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) – an initiative organised by the US Embassy Abu Dhabi, in partnership with startAD, an Abu Dhabi-based global accelerator at NYU Abu Dhabi and powered by Tamkeen.
The four-month intensive programme, which concludes on International Women’s Day (March 8), empowers women worldwide to fulfil their economic potential, and in doing so, create the conditions required for increased stability, security and prosperity for all.
The initiative provides women-owned businesses in the UAE with the training, connections and mentorship to reset their path to profitability, and with a view to survive, thrive, and grow in new market conditions.Â
Profitability is an important point in the context of female entrepreneurship. Existing information demonstrates that women-owned small and medium enterprises globally tend to be concentrated in overall low-profitability or low-growth sectors. There are several reasons that could explain this trend – an ability to source the necessary financing for more ‘risky’ and high-return ventures being one.
And yet, there is evidence to suggest that startups founded and cofounded by women perform better over time. A 2018 report by MassChallenge and Boston Consulting Group of 350 startups revealed that those founded and cofounded by women generated 10 percent more in cumulative revenue over a five-year-period than the businesses set up by men.
Thus, if investors want to generate the best possible returns, it is vital that they invest in male and female founded companies alike: in this sense, diversity really is the key to success.
.jpg?oS0nMCp5)
Female entrepreneurs must be afforded the support, training, connections and funding that they need to develop and scale their ventures
The road ahead
A two-pronged approach is required to increase the number of female entrepreneurs in the UAE, and the region. Firstly, there must be a drive to raise awareness amongst the investor community about the importance of diversity in the entrepreneurial sphere. Innovation is key to the UAE’s continued success as the most innovative nation in the Arab world; and, diversity, of talent, perspective, skills and approach is a key driver of innovation.
Secondly, female entrepreneurs must be afforded the support, training, connections and funding that they need to develop and scale their ventures, and this cannot be led by an individual entity or initiative. As a business community, we have an important responsibility to reimagine the current startup landscape.
The UAE has successfully shifted the previously held, global belief that women are less inclined to excel in STEM subjects than men; the revelation that 77 percent of students taking computer science classes in the Emirates are female clearly refutes this notion.
Now, the onus is on the business community to come together to ensure that female representation exists in every possible aspect of the innovation value chain.
One thing is for sure, our entire society will undoubtedly profit from such an achievement. Progress is rarely swift nor easy; whilst the UAE has been steadfast in driving change, the business community must now commit to doing all it possibly can to support female entrepreneurs and their innovations.Â