Today I am sharing an article that originally appeared in an Alghanim Industries publication, Together, which is distributed twice a year to our 14,000 employees.
Gender parity is one of the most important issues in the business world right now. And rightly so: Women make up 50 percent of the global workforce.
Yet pay and opportunity disparities persist, worldwide. But the issue is especially acute in the Middle East.
This article underscores our unwavering commitment to diversifying our workforce, with a special focus on women and the tremendous value they bring to our organization - not just from a productivity standpoint, but also in terms of meaningful impacts on culture, business innovation and decision-making.
Last month Alghanim Industries hosted the first "Women in the Corporate World" conference, which aimed to raise awareness of critical issues in gender diversity at the workplace. The event was a resounding success and culminated in a pledge of support for working women in Kuwait.
Why was this conference held?
One reason, plain and simple: We need more women in the workplace.
According to UN Women, 47% of the female population is currently employed. That's almost half, of course, which sounds pretty good until you consider the comparative figure for men: 72%.
The problem is particularly acute in the Middle East. In 2014, MENA's workplace participation had a gender gap of 53%. That's four times the size of the North American gap, and fully twice the global average. According to the IMF, if the gender gap was narrowed by just one-third, our regional GDP would grow by a staggering $1 trillion a year, or 6 percent.
Let's pivot to the business case: If we don't employ women, we aren't accessing 50% of the human talent and knowledge pool - in other words, half of the talent pool is being ignored. Furthermore, studies, including a recent one conducted by MIT, consistently show that companies with more women in senior management outperform less diverse companies, in some cases by a rather wide margin.
At Alghanim Industries, we are taking action to ensure that our workplace is inclusive and diverse. We've issued new polices on equal employment and revised our recruitment procedures to help increase the hiring of qualified women. In addition, we've recently increased maternity leave benefits in Kuwait and the UAE, which will help make our workplace more attractive to working women.
To be sure, there is much more to be done. But this is a start.