Breaking Through The Glass Ceiling
I was recently asked if, as a female professional, I had ever come up against a 'glass ceiling'. The question intrigued me as fortunately I had not, in both my careers in the corporate and non-profit world. However, there are many women out there who have.
Women's rights have been a debatable topic since the days of Virginia Woolfe and Huda Sha'rawi, the Egyptian feminist who broke new ground in the 1920s and 1930s. Back then, the emancipation of women was one of the most controversial topics.
As Woolfe put it, "The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself". Although at the time the issue was in its embryonic stage, it caused a great uproar and consequently Woolfe went down in history as one of the most influential people of her era.
Today, the debate continues. The United Nations Development Fund for Women provides us with an interesting quote: "Countries that do not fully take advantage of one half of the talent in their population are misallocating their human resources". This is certainly an issue that we in the UAE do not face.