Working Women in the Middle East are Treated Fairly, Study

Recent research conducted by the Middle East's number one job site - Bayt.com in conjunction with research specialists YouGovSiraj has found that 60% of women in the Middle East's workplace feel that they are treated fairly as compared to their male counterparts.

A further 7% of women reported receiving preferential treatment vis-à-vis male colleagues while 23% reported male colleagues received preferential treatment.

The majority of women however at 43% of respondents, felt that their gender had not affected their career prospects, with a further 22% being polarized in their opinion of whether gender had had a positive or negative impact on their career.

The Women in the Workplace survey is a measure of women's perceptions, attitudes, experiences and satisfaction of various elements of their role in the workplace, especially in regard to their treatment and salaries received compared to their male counterparts.

The survey revealed that there was frequent disparity among nationalities with respect to their feelings about their promotion in the workplace.

Although 41% of women felt they had a lower chance of being promoted than their male colleagues, this was most pronounced amongst GCC nationals, with half believing they stood a lower chance, closely followed by 47% of Asians.

By contrast, 44% of Western women, almost double the average (27%), felt that their promotion chances were equal to their male equivalents.

One way that female workers' feelings about gender equality were measured, was in terms of their financial remuneration and their level of reward and benefits.

Almost half of all women surveyed - 46% - feel that they receive less pay than their male counterparts, with Asian nationals most likely to feel this was the case at 58% of Asian respondents.

Equality in terms of remuneration also differed by job sector, with majority of female government and semi-government employees seeming to be more equally paid than others.

Together, almost half this group felt women receive a salary equal to that of male colleagues, compared with 34% of women working for locally owned companies.

In terms of satisfaction with regards to the level of work recognition they receive, only 24% of respondents indicated high levels of satisfaction with 28% indicating they were dissatisfied.

GCC nationals were the most dissatisfied, with 38% citing satisfaction as low.

This should be viewed in conjunction with the fact that slightly over half the respondents felt that appreciation is based on performance alone and not on gender. Only 15% of respondents felt that male employees are better appreciated than female employees.

A quarter of the respondents though reported that appreciation was completely nonexistent - an astonishing finding in itself.

The research goes on to highlight the different reasons that women of different nationalities choose to work. The majority of all women said they worked to achieve their ambition in life at 62%, while 61% cited financial responsibility and need as the key factor.

The majority of GCC nationals (75%) worked for a sense of achievement, while most Western women (68%) cited monetary independence as the main reason to work; indicative perhaps of cultural trends and societal differences with regard to working attitudes.]]>