Anwar Gargash: more legislation needed to close gender gap in UAE’s private sector – The National

Anwar Gargash: more legislation needed to close gender gap in UAE’s private sector – The National

A senior Emirati official said that more legislation is needed to achieve gender equality in the UAE’s private sector.

Dr Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to President Sheikh Khalifa, said that women are not as equally represented in the private sector as they are in the public sector.

He was speaking at the Break the Bias forum held at Expo 2020 Dubai on Tuesday to mark International Women’s Day, which falls on March 8 each year.

Although [women] are represented in the private sector, they are not as represented in the same way, so we need to legislate that

Dr Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to President Sheikh Khalifa

He spoke on a panel alongside Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Dr Natalia Kanem from the United Nations Population Fund, and Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director general of the World Trade Organisation.

“The UAE has been successful in breaking a lot of glass ceilings through this sort of activist agenda from day one,” Dr Gargash said.

“Now, I think we are in the process where we want to see more legislation in order to break new frontiers.

“Today, for example, women comprise 60 per cent of our federal government. Although they are represented in the private sector, they are not as represented