Emirati women grads outnumber men in UAE workforce

(Representational image)

Emirati women have shown great progress in the area of workforce where they have grown to 32.8 per cent from mere 2.2 per cent in 1975, occupying mostly professional jobs, says a new book that revealed latest numbers  on women.
The majority 46.9 per cent of employed Emiratis women are professionals, followed by senior managers 12.6 per cent, says "Emirati Women, Past and Present", the second edition of book published by Statistics Centre-Abu Dhabi marking Emirati Women's Day.
Most of them about 36.9 per cent are working in public administration, defense and social security. The government sector accounted for 73.3 per cent in 2015.
In the oil and gas, they doubled to 6.9 per cent in ten years in 2015. A growth was also recorded in the financial intermediation and insurance activity, where females made up eight percent of the workforce in 2015, up from five percent.  
There is an upward trend in the labour force participation in the both the private and semi-government sectors. According SCAD, the largest proportion 43 per cent of employed held a basic university degree, compared with 23.7 per cent for males.  
The book analyzes education statistics in terms of the developments observed in the numbers of Emirati students by gender in government and private schools, which in the academic year 2014/15 reached a total of 152,720 students, of whom 49.7 per cent were females. 
During the academic year (2014/15), females accounted for 89.5 per cent of 4,283 UAE citizen teachers. As a result of the Government's tireless efforts in the field of education, the literacy rate among Emirati females (aged 10 years and over) rose steadily reaching 92.7 per cent by 2015. On the other hand, illiteracy among Emirati females dropped from 89.8 per cent in 1970 to only 7.3 per cent in 2015.  
In higher education, enrollment of female citizens increased from 16,619 students in 2008 to 22,819 students in 2014, which marks an annual growth rate of 5.5 per cent during the aforesaid period. As in General education, females have consistently out-numbered male students since 2008, with the female to male ration reaching 157:100 by 2014.    
The number of female citizen in Abu Dhabi increased 54-fold from 4,853 in 1960 to 260,791 by mid-2015, constituting 48.6 per cent of total citizen population.
The capital has a young population of female citizens, of whom 38.4 per cent are under 15 years of age, while 59.4 per cent are in working age (15-64 years).
Average life expectancy at birth for female citizens reached 79.8 years in 2015, reflecting the unprecedented development in the areas of health care and, social services.
The crude marriage for rate Emirati was 13 marriages per 1,000 female population in 2015.
The general marriage rate for females aged 15 years and above was 21.2 marriages per 1,000 female population, for unmarried females aged and above) was 47.6 marriages per 1,000 unmarried female population aged 15 years and over.  
In 2015, the general fertility rate was 118.1 births per 1,000 women aged (15-49 years). This was the median age at first marriage for Emirati women was to 23.8 years.
haseeb@khaleejtimes.com