‘Don’t hold back if you have potential’

DUBAI // Gender discrimination is nothing new to Emirati businesswoman Malak Hassan.

During her time as an urban planning manager, she said she witnessed female peers being passed over for promotions as their male counterparts were appointed to higher positions. The higher she climbed the corporate ladder, the fewer number of women she would see near the top.

“They would prefer males rather than females in the higher positions,” said Mrs Hassan, 33. “If there is a male in a higher position, if he has a choice between two equal people who is a male or a female, he will choose a male, even if he is less educated. This is from my experience. Even if she is more qualified for this position. And he will say, maybe he will say, it’s much easier for me to communicate with a male.”

When a woman friend of hers was overlooked for a promotion, she asked to switch departments so that she could work in an environment that supported her professional ambitions, Mrs Hassan said.

“She moved her department to a different new department because of the discrimination. It happens,” said Mrs Hassan. “I think we need another maybe five years, seven years for this to change.”

Now self-employed as the owner of a Dubai consulting company with 15 employees, Mrs Hassan advises women facing workplace gender discrimination to seek greener pastures instead of staying in an environment that will inhibit their professional and personal growth.

“I’m not saying that this is right, but you know this is very hard and it’s like fighting a full culture, our culture,” she said. “This would need years to change and then why hold yourself when you know you have potential and you have these great things that you can provide to the country and you stick it to prove it to one person? It’s not worth it. I think you should leave and then give the invention and capabilities somewhere else. The new place will appreciate you.”

rpennington@thenational.ae