Drilling Into Diversity: Developing the Reservoir of Talent
Authors: Lau R. , Williams J. , Hasani N. , Lau L. 
Published: October 2011

In the last few years, opportunities for women in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have grown exponentially with professional and educational positions opening up on an unprecedented scale fueled by a variety of forces. They include 1), an expansion in the UAE's international oil and gas export industry sectors at a time when older workers are retiring in large numbers (Naylor 2009) (Oil 2010), 2), a shortage of qualified professional Emiratis to fill local quotas under a program called Emiratization to help meet the challenges in a country where foreign workers outnumber local ones at a ratio of 12 to 1 (Shaw 2010), 3), an inability of high schools and universities to attract and retain enough Emirati young men (Lewis 2010), 4 ), and the efforts of the country's leaders to honor and respect the intentions of their late founding father, His Highness Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who as president said, "Nothing could delight me more than to see the woman taking up her distinctive position in society... Nothing should hinder her progress... Like men, women deserve the right to occupy high positions according to their capabilities and qualifications (Women in the UAE 2011). " To support Sheikh Zayed's words through action, the UAE Constitution that was adopted in 1971 states that social justice should apply to all and that, before the law, women are equal to men. Women shall enjoy the same legal status, claim to titles and access to education. In addition, they shall have the right to practice the profession of their choice (Women 2011).

Subsequently, not only is the number of women now enrolled in higher education 24% higher than that of UAE national men (UAE 2011), Emirati women graduates can now be found working in professional positions in government, engineering, science, health care, media, computer technology, law and commerce while continuing to advance into leadership roles (ibid.). Currently, 20% of the UAE diplomatic corps, for example, is made up of women; there are four UAE cabinet ministers, nine representatives in the Federal National Council, a consultative parliamentary body, a judge, plus 11,000 women run 30% of the UAE's small and medium businesses (ibid.) (Women 2010). In addition, the UAE ranked 35 among 182 nations in 2009 in the UNDP's Gender-Related Development Index and the country holds the 25th place in the world for gender empowerment (ibid.).

It is projected that if graduation trends continue where women receive 72% of professional degrees awarded (Women 2011op.cit. ), then women in the UAE should be in line to make up 40% of all science and engineering jobs from the 25% currently filled by women - a bigger proportion than the US (Women 2010). To help these women achieve this success a UAE federal strategy, called ‘Vision 2021’ was established in 2006 under a law issued by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai, to encourage and facilitate the participation of Emirati women in various aspects of the UAE's well-being (Chowdhury 2011).

Of course, these statistics, although impressive, don't tell the whole story. Regardless of the policies, programs, plans and visions to support and enable women in the work place, they do not appear to be enough to entice the majority of Emirati women to enter and remain in the workplace. For a variety of reasons, Emirati women make up the largest unemployed group in the UAE with just 23.9 per cent in active employment (Finch 2010). Dr Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, recently reported that women in the UAE still face discrimination in some professional fields despite their significant and rapid progress in government and other areas (Ramahi 2009). Due to inadequate role models and mentors to inspire them in how to balance careers and family combined with bias and discrimination in hiring, promotions, salaries and job offers (Zineddine 2011), many women are hesitant to enter the job market after graduation or if they do accept a position, they tend to leave after working only a few short years. In 2009, there was a decline in the number of female professional and technical workers throughout the UAE (Shaheen 2009). In addition, in a survey released recently by Masdar (Hassan 2011), they found that after graduation, these newly minted women engineers were hesitant to join the work place unsure that they wanted to buck local culture by joining what they term as ‘a boys’ club'(ibid.).

Even though local economists point to women as an untapped source for economic growth in the UAE (Finch 2010 op. cit.), just expanding educational opportunities for these women and allowing them to earn advanced degrees won't convince them to serve their country if they opt to stay in more culturally accepted, traditional roles as homemakers or secondary wage earners. What can industries like ADNOC, who so eagerly anticipate the participation of these local qualified professionals, do to help these engineers meet their gender-specific needs while serving their own?

In this paper, the researchers will examine some of the attitudes, both negative and positive, that UAE women engineering students face from their peers and colleagues as they prepare to enter the petroleum industry as qualified professionals. It is hoped that the paper will serve to help explain why some women chose to abandon a career path as a petroleum professional after years of specialized training.

In 2009, the researchers, working with both the men and women at the Petroleum Institute (PI) in the Abu Dhabi under the sponsorship of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), conducted a survey asking 298 PI faculty, students at all levels and ADNOC petroleum professionals to rate their awareness and expectations for professional women in the oil industry (Lau 2009 SPE 119204). In analyzing the results, the researchers concluded that of the three groups, male students appeared to be the most negative in their responses with up to 45%, for example, responding negatively when asked if they would work for a woman. Concluding, therefore, that further study into the opinions of these young men should be the focus of the next survey, the researchers designed two surveys, one exclusively for upper-class male students and the other for recent male graduates about their experiences and attitudes about working with and for professional women.

Is the reluctance of women to "join this boys’ club" justified by their expectations of a negative work environment? This paper will attempt to address reasons for professional women opting not to continue working in their chosen profession.