Fair share

Omani women are marching ahead, enjoying their rights to equal opportunity, freedom and security

Oman upholds the status of women in the country and she is given her rights to equal opportunity, freedom and security in social and employment spheres, among others. The status of women has been in focus at various international summits and this was underlined by the recent UNFPA GCC SWOP (State of the World Population) 2020 report.

The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which is the Magna Carta among the various initiatives by the country, the Ministry of Social Development (MoSD) aims at elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.

In order to implement the provisions of the CEDAW, the National Committee under the MoSD spares no stones unturned in upholding the same. The women in the Sultanate have achieved great milestones in the past few decades.

Accordingly, the ratio of female to male students pursuing higher education in Oman has jumped several times high since 1972. Today, the number of women in universities and colleges currently stands at 1.37 females for every male whereas the ratio was 0.21 females for every male student five decades ago.

“Omani women have excelled in almost all areas of society thanks to the continuous efforts of the government and the ministries of health, education, and social development. Omani women are given equal opportunity in all the spheres of life,” the UNFPA statement has commented.

Women in Oman are able to work in good economic conditions, where men are on par in terms of work, production, and investment opportunities. They are also able to carry out political work through roles such as membership in the Council of Ministers and the Council of Oman.

With this, the UN theme of International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8 is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a Covid-19 world”. Everyone benefits when women and girls are treated equally. It’s a global goal all societies can work towards, including in the businesses and workplaces.

On International Women’s Day, women’s accomplishments and achievements are celebrated. It is an opportunity to reflect on what steps businesses are taking — and can take - to advance gender equality and afford greater leadership opportunities in the Sultanate in particular and in the world in general.

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF) report, the greatest challenge in ensuring her roles in emerging technologies, cloud computing, engineering and Data and Artificial Intelligence needs to be addressed, and society can work on uplifting her status further.

Constant attention should be paid to improving women’s skills and one has to ensure that the workforce strategies are in congruence with better equipping her to overcome the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities that the digital economy offers. Widening her participation, providing opportunities to lead, rearranging the employee lifecycle, starting from how we attract and recruit talent, to how we invest in development are some of the fundamental steps needed to be taken towards ensuring gender equality.

KABEER YOUSUF

@kabeeryousef