Demystifying the leaking workforce pipeline : barriers facing female professionals in the Middle East and East Asia

Abstract

The high levels of female unemployment in majority Muslim countries constitutes significant lost opportunity on overall economic development. Nations that employ more women enjoy higher GDP's and a diverse talent pool. There has been little research done on the quality of women's career paths in these countries. Some nations struggle to push women into the workforce due to cultural and traditional expectations. In this thesis, we present a survey-based approach to understanding three barriers that could hinder women's entry to and development in the workforce. The barriers discussed are barriers to initial entry, barriers to retention and barriers to promotion. Cross examination of survey results from respondents in Middle Eastern countries and Southeast Asia have verified the high tertiary educational attainment of women. The results have verified the struggles of working women obtaining promotions. Working mothers in particular find difficulties balancing work and household responsibilities, which could affect their retention in the workforce pipeline. We end the survey analysis by providing recommendations to better strengthen women's retention and overall job satisfaction. This includes spreading awareness, adding guidelines to auditing institutions, and establishing new policies to make the workforce a more attractive platform for women, such as by subsidizing childcare and transportation. We contend that although these countries have put great efforts in attracting women to the workforce, more systemic female welfare policies will be needed in order to better capitalize on the valuable human capital asset that women add to the talent pool.