How women can break the glass ceiling

Globally, only 12 per cent of women hold senior executive and board level seats.

The International Women's Day is an opportunity to transform drive into action, to empower women in all settings of work and realise their full potential by offering unwavering support.

In the UAE, women have been taking an increasingly prominent role, to the extent that they now make up approximately 66 per cent of the workforce, with around 30 per cent in senior positions. On a global spectrum, however, the momentum hasn't been as steadfast. Although corporates world over have made significant strides in recent years, the representation of women in leadership requires more work. Globally, only 12 per cent of women hold senior executive and board level seats.

Questions have been raised as to whether special allocations can be the solution. However, we believe board members should be appointed not because of their gender, but their professional experience, ability and qualifications. The female voice is valuable in boardrooms because it supplements discussions with a different perspective. This is of special importance to businesses in the dawn of social media and is essential for sustained development.

At the moment, many qualified women are routinely - often through unconscious gender bias - funnelled into less advantageous areas of an organisation's operations. They are less likely to be offered critical roles or profile-building opportunities that facilitate career progression. Succession planning in organisations needs to have a gendered lens so that barriers to women's advancement into senior roles are eliminated.

We need to do 2 things to achieve real and meaningful results. First, we need to create an environment that would enable our women to break the glass ceiling. Stereotyping, bias and long working hours are discouraging our women executives from reaching for the top. Second, we need to provide enough positive reinforcement so that more women will find it rewarding to make sacrifices for advancement in their careers. Companies need to be more innovative and accommodating in terms of employment arrangements to promote diversity. Family-friendly policies are crucial so that female professionals can shine at different stages of their lives.

As a country, the UAE has made great progress over recent years in increasing the participation of women in the workforce by. For instance, their Gender Balance Council recently launched the world's first-of-its-kind policy guide that will help public and private companies provide equal opportunities for men and women at the workplace. Developed in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the guide, which proposes a roadmap for improvement, will help entities implement internal projects, initiatives and goals to achieve gender balance in line with the UAE's Vision 2021.

The country's government has also geared towards increasing women's participation in legislation and senior roles in government, and now stands as an exemplary for countries across the region. The percentage of women ministers in the UAE cabinet stands at 27.5 per cent, an additional 10.5 per cent up from the global figure of 17 per cent. Some of the key positions held by women ministers include: the Minister of Happiness, Minister of Youth, Minister of Community Development, Minister of Food Security and Minister of International Cooperation, who played an instrumental role in Dubai's winning bid to host Expo 2020.

Furthermore, the UAE's Federal National Council was the first legislature in the Arab world to elect a woman as it speaker. The appointment of Dr Amal Al Qubaisi in 2015 represented great progress for Emirati women and Arab women in general. It played a key role in policy development in all neighbouring countries to ensure women's participation in decision-making roles.

This International Women's Day, companies must take the onus to create a corporate culture that fosters the equitable professional growth of female employees through established career paths, while ensuring a work-life balance.

The writer is HR director for GCC and Jordan and MEA regional HR business partner of Laundry and Home Care Business at Henkel. Views expressed are her own and do not reflect the newspaper's policy.