The Struggle of Arab Women to Join the Workforce - and How Some Found Their Way In

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Tom Roychoudhury
Oct 01 2014
Startups
The Struggle of Arab Women to Join the Workforce - and How Some Found Their Way In
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In June 2012, Bayt.com and YouGov surveyed more than 2,000 women in the MENA region about challenges in the workplace. The three most common challenges that women faced were a lack of promotion opportunities, stressful and demanding work environments and inflexible work hours. As a young woman who has recently started working, I can identify with the aforementioned struggles. Before entering the job market, women must consider how working will impact their personal choices, time management skills and family life. While the corporate world tends to ignore the difficulties that women face, Dubai’s new start up scene is giving women more opportunities to balance their families, passions and careers.

Access to the Workforce for Young Women

When I first started looking for entry-level jobs in Dubai, I thought I was going to have to put my personal life on hold to find a good position. Accepting long work hours, exhausting commutes and high rents seemed inevitable. However, I was offered an internship by a Dubai-based startup called www.melltoo.com, a social network for users to buy and sell preloved items, that would allow me to work from my home in Al Ain.

Ineffective communication is usually one of the biggest issues when working remotely.  However, this has not been the case. My team members and I use various online collaborative platforms, such as Google Hangouts, Slack.com, Trello etc, to discuss ongoing projects, host brainstorming sessions and share important information on a daily basis. Not only has working from home allowed me to fulfill my personal responsibilities, it has also given me valuable work experience and networking opportunities. As www.melltoo.com’s Media Relations Coordinator, I have had the chance to network with entrepreneurs in Dubai’s startup scene, I have interacted with influential people in the media and I have been invited to various lectures about entrepreneurship. All opportunities that I never thought I would have as a fresh graduate without great personal sacrifice.

Imen Ben Romdhane, www.melltoo.com’s twenty-one year old fashion blogger, also benefits from www.melltoo.com’s e-workplace, as it allows her to balance her passion with a full-time job and her online university studies in Tunis. “In Tunis, I have a two hour commute to and from work everyday, which used to be a big waste of time for me. However, since I started working at www.melltoo.com, I don’t feel like I am wasting my time anymore, because I can use my long commute to work on ideas and content for my fashion blog.”

Time is a precious resource, which is why young women, like Imen and I, are excited to see the growth of the startup community, because it is redefining the way that women manage their personal and professional lives. For a long time, many women in the MENA region were unable, or unwilling, to join the workforce due to conservative cultural values. However, the spread of internet access and entrepreneurial values has encouraged even the most conservative women in the most conservative cultures to participate in their local economies. The world stands to greatly benefit from the increased participation of these women in the workforce, as “societies in which women have greater economic and political participation tend to be more stable .”

Turning Passion into Viable Businesses

When it comes to finding work, many women feel the need to sacrifice their passions for a flexible or good paying job. Consequently, they choose to pursue jobs in education or the public sector, because the work hours are shorter and the pay is still reasonable. However, some women are unwilling to make a career change for better work hours, so they feel compelled to sacrifice their personal life for more relevant work opportunities. Having said that, in the startup world, your passion can become your business, which is why so many women are becoming increasingly attracted to the idea of becoming entrepreneurs.

Shelina Jokhiya took her lifelong passion for organization and turned it into a thriving business. Shelina is the founder of Decluttr Me, the first Dubai-based start up to offer organizational services to UAE residents,  When asked what she enjoyed most about running her own startup, Shelina said that the ability to plan her own schedule meant that she could maximize the use of her time. "When I was working in Dubai as a solicitor, I never got to see much of the city because I was always working. Now that I have to network for my business and meet clients, not only do I get to enjoy more of the city, I also get to meet new people, all while expanding my business.” One of the other benefits of running a business that Shelina cited was the ability to pursue new hobbies in her spare time. "I recently signed up to be a marshal for Abu Dhabi's upcoming grand prix, something I never would have considered if had I continued to work in the corporate world. I’m very excited for this new experience."

Finding jobs with flexible work hours to explore new horizons can be very challenging for women, especially women with families. However, Thea Myhrvold, the founder of TeachMeNow, a virtual platform that connects students/parents to tutors, believes that it’s the responsibility of women to start making these opportunities for themselves. “Women should be encouraged to work, start companies and not be limited in their choices. We need more good stories and role models if we want to encourage more participation from women.” One of the ways that Thea is encouraging women to join the workforce is through her own platform, which gives women the opportunity to become tutors online. Thus giving women, especially mothers, the opportunity to make flexible incomes from the comfort of their own home. Like Shelina, Thea is showing how anyone can take a passion and turn it into a successful business venture. “I started my company in Dubai for a reason, I believe that if you want to see a change in the world you need to be a part of it. I want to help build a path for young women who want to make a difference and shake things up in the region.”

Making Time for Family

For many women, the idea of having both a successful career and family life seems impossible and nowadays there is a lot of pressure on women to strike a “perfect” balance between the two. Unfortunately, there are very few jobs that allow women to strike this balance, so many feel the need to give up one to excel in the other. Poor maternity leave policies and expensive or inadequate childcare facilities also play an important role in the decision that women make to leave the job market.

For Sharene Lee, co-founder of www.melltoo.com and mother of five, her poor experience with a childcare facility was just one of the reasons that made her leave the workforce in search for a better work situation. A situation she found in the startup scene. In March of this year, Sharene co-founded www.melltoo.com with her husband Morrad, a business that they run from their home in Ras Al Khaimah. “Working remotely suits me because I can be home to take care of the needs of my kids. And because I realize what a privilege this is, I work that much harder. And because my mind is at ease where my family is concerned, I work that much better.”

In the age of internet, more and more startups, are willing to offer their employees flexible work schedules, which is opening new doors for women with families. Rashidah Brown, www.melltoo.com’s motherhood and child blogger, while not a mother, is a dedicated daughter and an older sister of eleven living in Abu Dhabi and for her family comes first. Eager to find a work situation that would allow her to balance her family responsibilities and her online university studies, Rashidah researched various job opportunities. However, nothing seemed suitable for her situation until she found www.melltoo.com’s remote internship opportunity. “Working remotely means I can work from the comfort of my home with no time wasted on the road and I can be there for my family whenever they need me.”

Not only are startups offering more flexible opportunities to women in general, they are specifically offering more opportunities to women of all ages and experience levels. Whereas the corporate world might hesitate to hire a young or inexperienced employee, startups are more willing to harness and nurture young talent, which allows them to tap into another neglected source of productive labor in our societies. “At, nineteen, I feel very lucky to be able to work on www.melltoo.com’s different projects and campaigns, because it allows me to familiarize myself with the ins-and-outs of the business so that I am more experienced as time goes on. Very few businesses offer such opportunities to young, inexperienced, apprentices such as myself”

About Soukaina Rachidi

Soukaina Rachidi is Melltoo's Moroccan-American Media Relations Coordinator.  She writes about trending cultural issues and startups and loves to travel the world. Her favorite trips have been to Argentina, South Korea and Sri Lanka.