By Western standards, the Middle East workplace has moved slowly in its acceptance of women in the traditionally male-dominated workplace. A recent survey conducted by Bayt.com and YouGovSiraj, “The Women in the Middle East Workplace,” monitored women’s perceptions of their work environment promotion potential, gender-specific benefits and salary satisfaction. Of the surveyed women, 60% felt that they were treated equal to their male co-workers while 23% reported inferior treatment and 7% reported superior treatment. Differences in perception were apparent among Western and Asian women as well as Arab women working in their home country.
Dr. Dima Dabbous-Sensenig, director of the Institute for Women’s Studies at the Lebanese American University was not convinced that the study accurately reflected women’s perceptions of their work environment. “Often, when women are asked, ‘are you being discriminated against in the workplace?’ many will say, ‘no’ yet there is a big difference between perception and reality,” she said, noting that in her view the 60% rate of perceived equality in the workplace is “a high rate, yet does not account for the differences in legal and cultural understanding of what constitutes discrimination or harassment.”
Climbing the corporate ladder is one of the most prominent concerns of working women. In the survey, 41% responded with a pessimistic outlook on this matter — most of them being GCC nationals. Among Asian women, 47% saw slim chances of promotion over their male counterparts. The generalization of disparate individuals and job sectors opened up further questions for Dabbous-Sensenig. She specifically questioned the ethnic categories defined by the survey. “What does the category of Asian women include? South Asians? East Asians? The category must be further defined,” she said.
Equal pay for equal work has long been the chant of women’s rights enthusiasts. Yet 46% of survey respondents reported lower salaries than their male colleagues. In this category, Asian women, at 58%, reported the most pay discrimination. Throughout all job sectors, Dabbous-Sensenig said, “I’m sure there is a lot of pay discrimination going on because people are told not disclose their salaries. For this reason, women can’t tell if they are being paid less than men.” She also noted that the majority of problems women face in the workplace are “less obvious, indirect structural forms of discrimination.”
