More sex in the city

Women make up less than one per cent of executive boardroom membership of Dubai Financial Market-listed companies. Of the 371 boardroom members, just three are women. And none are based in the UAE.

There are many ways to read this Emirates Business survey, but ‘less than one per cent’ is ‘less than one per cent’ whichever way you slice it. In Norway, 36 per cent of boardroom members are women – and there is a government target of 40 per cent.
You could argue that this survey is only concerned with DFM-listed companies, so it is not representative of the broader UAE economy. But how many private businesses do you know with women in senior positions? Sure, there are notable examples, but it is not Little Oslo out there.
This matters because the UAE, and Dubai in particular, is casting itself as a new economy for the (not so) new century. If we accept that attracting and nurturing the best human resources is a profitable idea, and that this talent can move anywhere in the world, shouldn’t it be a major goal to remove any barriers to women moving up the career ladder?
This issue is not so much ‘bring more women into the boardroom’ as freeing up talent. If the best candidates are being prevented from progressing, the economy suffers. If Emirates can spire to be the world’s best airline, or Emaar the world’s best property developer, why can’t the UAE be home to the world’s most talented boardrooms?