Emirati students from Sharjah Higher College of Technology are confident that their gender will pose no problems in their future careers. (Kendrick/TYG)

Security was tight—all cameras, recorders, and phones were checked at the door. Inside, the stage promised a good show: a starry backdrop, multicolor spotlights, three huge TV screens. Then, suddenly, a hush fell over the crowd. Her Highness Sheikha Manal Bint Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, president of the Dubai Women’s Establishment, had arrived.

The audience members at Madinat Jumeirah on March 12 weren’t your typical college concert crowd. Their attire was modest, ranging from business suits to traditional Emirati female dress—the abaya, a black outer garment that covers head to toe. And they were all women, in accordance with the program’s “ladiesonly” stipulation. These 2,000 participants, primarily university students and representatives from schools, governments, and NGOs—had gathered from 60 different countries for the biannual “Women as Global Leaders” (WAGL) conference. The three-day program of speakers and workshops on women’s leadership was hosted by the prestigious, all-female Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates, under the patronage of the wife of the country’s first president.

Belying her dress and title, Sheikha Manal’s words were as modern as those of other speakers gracing Dubai’s stages that week. Ninety-two percent of Emirati women receive tertiary education, she told a disbelieving crowd. Each year, around 70 percent of college graduates in the UAE are female. Fifty-two percent of employees in the government sector are women, as are 22 percent of the UAE’s Federal National Council members. These numbers rival similar statistics in the United States and other Western nations.

Dubai is perhaps best known for the skyscrapers it builds at dazzling speeds, but the position of women in the UAE appears to be developing just as quickly. The women gracing the stage of Madinat Jumeirah during the WAGL conference defied every Western stereotype of the Arab woman, and they are not alone. Women currently comprise around 25 percent of the workforce, and, while still low by some other countries’ standards, the number of female Emiratis in the workforce is growing three times as fast as the number of male Emiratis. “If you look at other countries, they could not do this in hundreds of years,” said Salma Hareb, CEO of the Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority and a distinguished speaker at the conference. “And we did it over the last ten years.”

But, while real estate developers in Dubai can accelerate construction with imported labor working overtime, the UAE has attempted to foster lasting social change at the same breakneck speed. What have those attempts been like, and what prompted the change? Does the commitment extend beyond the speeches and workshops of the WAGL conference?

New Opportunities

A progressive stance on women’s rights is built into the UAE ’s history. The constitution, adopted at the country’s founding in 1971, guarantees women the same legal status and educational and professional opportunities as men. The first president, Sheikh Zayed, vocally supportted empowering women. In the 1970s, his wife, Sheikha Fatima, began a countrywide movement of women’s societies that, to this day, sponsor activities ranging from dressmaking and handicrafts to job placement programs and welfare assistance.