Bodour Al Qasimi tells tech firms to open top jobs to women and create fairer workplaces

Bodour Al Qasimi tells tech firms to open top jobs to women and create fairer workplaces

- 56% of UAE government university graduates in STEM are women;

- Saudi women in ICT have risen from 7% to 28% since 2018;

BUT

- Female-led start-ups in the Middle East get only 2% of funding from VC and few girls who study STEM subjects build careers in the field.

Dubai: Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, President of American University of Sharjah (AUS) and of Sharjah Research, Technology, and Innovation Park (SRTIP), has urged leaders of technology companies to be more proactively inclusive by factoring women’s needs into corporate thinking from the start.

Keynoting WIRED’s third anniversary ‘Arab Women in Tech’ conference, in Dubai, Sheikha Bodour said it was imperative humanity learn from its mistakes and evolve without ‘leaving half the population behind’.

To illustrate, she said: ‘When airbags were introduced, they killed and injured more women and children than men. Why? Because women and children’s physical differences and car seating positions were not calculated in the test results.’

She continued: ‘When we talk about technology and the future, we should ask ourselves if women are included in our calculations. Are women being encouraged and supported to keep up with this change, or being left behind?’

Progress made, work still to do

Citing regional progress, Sheikha Bodour said 56%