MENA Women in Work Survey 2022:
Young Women, Powerful Ambitions
Our 2022 survey of the professional experiences and ambitions of women aged 18 to 35 reveals both high expectations but also frustration. We surveyed 1,500 women aged 18 to 35 across Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. In total, these countries are home to around 81 million people and have a combined GDP of around $2 trillion.
In recent years, women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have made unprecedented gains as a vital part of the region’s workforce. A pioneering generation of younger women are more likely than ever to go to work and remain in employment to fulfil their career ambitions. Typically, they are highly educated and motivated, and are increasingly visible across the public and private sectors, from roles in policy making and diplomacy to entrepreneurship and corporate leadership.
Their progress is momentous, but the region has yet to reap the full potential of women in the workforce.
Explore the key findings
Young MENA women are advancing at work
There is a big gap between expectations vs. reality
The work-life balance: great expectations and great frustration
Lack of training opportunities and support
Young MENA women are more likely than ever before to be in work. The greatest advances in labor force participation in recent years have been achieved in GCC countries, particularly the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia
This progress is closely connected to the fact that MENA women are more highly educated than ever before. They are especially well represented in higher education in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) disciplines. For example, between 34% (Egypt, Saudi Arabia) and 56% (Oman) of STEM graduates are women, a much higher proportion than in the US (22%) or Europe (34%).
However, there remains significant room for improving the employment prospects and career opportunities for young MENA women.
Their increasing access to higher education is not yet matched by a proportionate rise in workforce participation and female representation at senior management levels remains low, because many women exit the labor market after marriage or having children
While young women are highly motivated and keen to make their mark in the workplace, their experiences of employers are falling short of expectations. Too often, the assurance that they will be treated the same as their male colleagues and given equal training, development and career opportunities, is not reflected in their actual experience
Almost all of the survey respondents (94%) say they value employers who help them to achieve a work-life balance, while 80% feel it is important to play a leading role in looking after their families. This suggests that young women value their time outside of work, whether it is to maintain their own wellbeing, cultivate personal interests and their own development, or to fulfil their roles and responsibilities within their families.
However this does not mean that the women are not ambitious and want to progress their career - 84% of respondents aspire to become leaders in their field, 80% are confident about their ability to lead others, and 86% believe they have the skills and experience to progress to the next level of their career.
While 93% of the survey respondents value employers who offer them training and development opportunities, only 62% say they currently work for an employer that offers training and development opportunities which are tailored to their needs.
Mentorship and leadership is also important to them -with 91% of the women surveyed highlighting this, however the proportion drastically drops to 68% regarding whether their own workplace has this kind of supportive culture.
Of equal concern is the fact that 86% believe they have the skills and experience to progress to the next level of their career, but only 67% think they can rise as far as they want with their current employer.
There definitely seems to be room for improvement since currently the training appetite is not matched by corresponding suitable opportunities and the required support for career development could be enhanced.
Five key measures to help MENA employers unleash the talent of young women
Invest in young women’s skills
Employers, policymakers and academic and training institutions should collaborate to identify skills needs and training curricula that can be targeted towards women to ensure that they develop future ready skills. Building on the successful drive to boost the number of young women studying STEM subjects in university, employers can also create local pipelines of female talent who can join companies directly after graduation and jump-start their careers.
Reform male-dominated workplace cultures
Employers should engage with female employees to identify problem areas and reform male-dominated workplaces with unconscious bias training that makes men of the business aware of assumptions that they may have about their female colleagues, especially in situations involving offering work opportunities and in performance review.
Embed equitable workplace policies and practices
Employers can implement a whole host of policies to improve the female employee experience:
sponsorship and mentoring programmes which provide equal access and opportunities to women employees.
improved support for working mothers and those returning from career breaks to ease the transition back to work.
paternity leave policies that shift expectations of caring responsibilities so they are more evenly split between men and women.
Respect personal time and wellbeing
Flexible working hours, the ability to work remotely and a good work-life balance are highly desirable characteristics in employers. To ensure the wellbeing of their employees, managers should be trained to spot the signs of stress and burnout such as consistent late-night work, evidence of exhaustion and lack of motivation. Support can then be offered, such as counselling, rebalancing workloads or encouraging wellbeing practices. This does not mean sidelining women by giving them fewer responsibilities but simply enabling them to do the best job possible.
Develop a clear strategy and metrics to measure progress in supporting young women
Key performance indicators should be developed for all senior leaders and managers that measure their progress in supporting young women to advance their careers against clearly defined metrics at each stage of their career path. This will also establish the company’s corporate profile as one which champions diversity and furthermore helps retain and attracts female talent.
The benefits of getting it right are astounding
The diversity of the countries, economies and populations across the MENA region calls for a targeted approach to address the barriers holding so many talented young women back from deservedly achieving professional success and fulfilling their career ambitions.
The benefits of getting it right though when it comes to young MENA women in the workplace cannot be overstated since it will not only benefit the women themselves realising their full potential but also the employers, as well as wider society.
Releasing the pent-up talent of the next female generation is a strategic and economic imperative to ensure the region can compete on equal terms internationally in a rapidly changing world.
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