UN Women’s Susanne Mikhail Eldhagen On The Dark Shadow Of The Gender Gap
The UN Women Regional Director for the Arab States, and Harper’s Bazaar Arabia columnist shines a light on what it will take for women to stand in the sun of economic equality
Each year, on the 22nd of February, the sun brutally mocks our logic, defying the most basic perceptions of what should or could be possible. On that exact date, one single ray will strangely find its way to a 5000-year-old temple deeply sunk at the shores of the river Nile. It is there, inside the Abu Simbel temple, where magic will bend our minds. Swiftly, the ray will pass heavy stones in dark alleys, snaking its way through a 200-metre corridor. At the very end of the temple, the inner chamber will be reached. There, the sun will intentionally beam only on three out of four colossal statues. King Ramses will be lit, the god of sun Ra will be lit, and the king of gods Amun will also bask in yellow warmth. Yet while sunlight bathes three statues each February, the design of the temple ensured that the fourth statue, that of Ptah, god of darkness, would remain in shadows for more than 3,000 years.
Some socio-economic structural challenges continue to loom as large, and cast as dark a shadow, in 2022. One of them is the paradox of women’s education and employment. On one hand, the region as a whole scores relatively well on women’s education. The Global Gender Gap index on educational attainment, shows relatively high figures for most countries in the Arab states, with the exception of countries in conflict. The Arab region is one of only two regions that have improved this ranking between 2020 and 2021. Yet, the relatively high level of education amongst women stands in sharp contrast to the low levels of women’s economic participation, as the women’s labour force participation rate still hovers around a meagre 21 per cent. In fact, our region shows the widest gap between the two indexes of educational attainment (94.2) and economic participation and opportunity (40.9). This paradox of high levels of education on one hand, and low levels of women’s economic participation on the other, is one of the greatest sources of unnecessary economic loss, mounting to at least US$575 billion (Dhs2,112 billion) per year for the Arab States.
“ The Global Gender Gap index on educational attainment shows relatively high figures for most countries in the Arab states, with the exception of countries in conflict ”
Tacking this challenge is not only about education; it is about unlocking a number of structural challenges simultaneously. It is about expanding the care economy (which in some countries caters to only 10 per cent of pre-school needs for children), it is about amending laws (particularly those limiting women’s access to capital, hindering them from starting businesses) and it is about increasing men’s engagement in the care of children (women account for 4.7 times more unpaid care work than men – the highest ratio anywhere in the world, despite surveys from the region also showing that men want to spend more time with their children). Lastly, it is also about safe public transportation (enabling women’s access to jobs). Investment in these areas has been taking place throughout the Arab States. But speed and scale are now of the essence so we can keep up with the global pace.
Evidently, most paradoxes have rational explanations. For women’s employment and financial opportunities throughout the region, these are quite clear. And so are the solutions, propelling us to a brighter future. Meanwhile Ptah remains in foggy shadows. Crumbling in the dark.
From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s February 2022 issue