Oman bourse adds women to board in bid to narrow business gender gap

Oman bourse adds women to board in bid to narrow business gender gap

Oman's stock exchange has appointed two women to its seven-member board amid a push to boost gender diversity within the Gulf's business community.

Samra Sulaiman Alharthy is the director of investment and economic research at the Oman Investment Authority and sits on the boards of Oman LNG, Qalhat LNG and Dubai Mercantile Exchange.

UAE's progress comes after decision to make representation of women on boards of directors of listed companies mandatory

She has worked for over a decade at the state-owned wealth fund. Previously, she was a UK and eurozone economist at Standard Chartered in London, according to a statement from the investment authority, which owns the Muscat Securities Market.

Mathla Saleh Al Shaqsi is a senior associate of investments at the Oman Investment Authority. Before joining the fund, she was an assurance senior associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the statement said.

In the World Bank's recently published Women, Business and the Law (WBL) Report, a global measure of female-focused legal reforms, Oman fared poorly compared to the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Out of a score of 100, Oman tallied just 35.6, putting it well behind the UAE (82.5) and Saudi Arabia (80) and also below Bahrain (55.6). In the Gulf, only Qatar (29.4) and Kuwait (28.8) were