While a majority of women in the GCC have expressed a preference for working in the finance industry, they also highlighted strong dislikes for particular industries and expect difficulties related to entering the workforce, a report said.

Fifty-seven per cent of Saudi women, 43 per cent of Omani women, 33 per cent of Qatari women and 29 per cent of Emirati women considered banking and finance to be their industry of choice (compared with 35 per cent, 23 per cent, 20 per cent, and 11 per cent of men respectively), according to the GCC Employment Reports 2016 from Oxford Strategic Consulting.

As for non-traditional roles, Saudi women were twice as likely than men to aspire to a job in aerospace and Qatari females much preferred working in HR over male counterparts (11 per cent vs. 1 per cent).

GCC female perceptions of the medical industry were mixed. Qatari women were five times more likely than men to aspire to a job in the medical industry, and females in the UAE were three times as likely than males to consider a career in medicine.

In Saudi Arabia, women were significantly more likely than men to want to work in a hospital (34 per cent vs. 17), yet Omani females were four times less likely than male counterparts to consider working in the medical industry.

Women held overwhelmingly negative views of the tourism and hospitality industry. Saudi women were six times less likely than males to consider working in tourism and hospitality, and Omani females were also significantly less likely to want to work in the industry. Moreover, 29 per cent of Emirati females and 15 per cent of Qatari females ranked tourism and hospitality as their least favoured industry to work in at present.

Women still expect significant difficulties when sourcing employment in 2016, according to the report. Qatari women were significantly more pessimistic than men about how easy it is to find a job, and they were three times more likely than men to consider ‘not knowing how to apply for a job’ to be a significant difficulty.

In the UAE, females were significantly more likely than males to mention awareness of jobs (37 per cent vs. 27 per cent), suitability of jobs (37 per cent vs. 25 per cent) and knowing how to approach companies (27 per cent vs. 15 per cent) as difficulties encountered on the job search. Saudi females were significantly more likely than males to feel that the pay was too low for available jobs (40 per cent vs 24 per cent), whereas the most common gripe among Omani women concerned long working hours.

The good news is that many obstacles to increased female employment in the GCC are straightforward to overcome, the report said.

Direct interventions such as interview training, CV workshops and mentoring can help improve female job candidates’ self-esteem and confidence. Similarly, well-designed job fairs and online portals can better connect employers with qualified female candidates. Flexible and remote work options may offer some relief to those females working unduly long hours. And while wages earned by women should equal those of male counterparts, higher wages across the board may prove to be a hard pill to swallow for GCC employers in the short-term.

One of the main findings of Oxford’s research into women’s employment over the years is that rather than women being the problem, it is actually a lack of understanding and in some cases fear amongst employers that limits women’s employment and careers.

It is crucial more than ever before, particularly with the drop in oil prices and times of fiscal adjustment, that local governments and organisations alike increase the number of females in the workforce, be it through mentoring, internships, or through valued career guidance.

Oxford Strategic Consulting is an Oxford and GCC based consultancy that specialises in building human capital across the GCC and Europe. – TradeArabia News Service