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Where glass ceilings are broken

Dubai - Women no longer have a marginal role in the workplace, Hessa says.

As the bulky stacker crane whirrs into motion at the busy port terminal, unloading goods onto awaiting lorries, there is another kind of heavy lifting going on behind the scenes: The pursuit of workplace diversity.
The world's shipping industry was once seen as an exclusive realm for men, but is now attracting more and more female workers. And at DP World, that includes roles of operating cranes and other heavy machinery at its terminal facilities - and even working on a giant icebreaker vessel in Antarctica.
Shipping containers may have a final destination, but efforts towards equal opportunities are an ongoing process.
And DP World's mission is closely aligned with the concept of "The Double X Economy", which promotes women's engagement not only as consumers and workers, but as investors, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists across the full range of economic activity.
The concept was initiated by Professor Linda Scott, DP World Chair for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Oxford, and an early pioneer in the movement to empower women by increasing their engagement with the market economy.
The mission of the Double X Economy - which is to make the considerable interconnected economic activities of women more visible - is one that DP World supports and is reflected in its active global equal-opportunities policy. It is a policy based on women being an integral and increasing, part of the company's already rich and diverse mix of workers.
Hessa Al Sayegh, Assistant Manager for Marketing & Communication at DP World in the UAE Region, asserts there is no task men can carry out at the workplace that women cannot match in terms of performance.
"Women are fully capable of handling and successfully completing any given task no matter how demanding the challenge or degree of difficulty," she says.
Women no longer have a marginal role in the workplace, Hessa says. "That culture has long undergone a marked change."
afkarali@khaleejtimes.com