Women in business - Arab world vs the West

Posted on April 28, 2008
Filed Under Economy, Islam, Middle East

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Women are by far more progressive and creative than men when it comes to management. To me it’s a factual conclusion, reached after years of experience working with Israeli, African, European and American companies. In terms of finding solutions it is much easier to do business with women. But here is something I find absolutely stunning (and not in a good way).
From Zawya.com

Dammam: Arab women own only about 14 per cent of business establishments unlike their American and European counterparts who own 25-30 per cent.

Pointing out this statistic, Shaikha Hessa Bint Sa’ad Al Abdullah Al Sabah, chairperson of the Arab Council of Businesswomen, however, noted that there has been a big increase in the number of Saudi women securing commercial registration.

In her keynote speech at the Women’s Economic Forum being held here, Shaikha Hessa said: “The number of commercial registrations in the name of Saudi women reached about 43,000, which represents 20 per cent of commercial registrations issued in the kingdom.”

She said that more than 20 per cent of the wealth deposited in Saudi investment funds belong to women, and pegged the value of real estate investments by Saudi women at 120 billion riyals.
“The volume of assets owned by women in Saudi banks exceeds 45 billion riyals,” Shaikha Hessa said.
She compared the situation to the UAE where there are over 9,000 businesswomen. Women account for 18 per cent of the UAE’s private sector. “In Qatar, the volume of investment by businesswomen amounted to $1.6 billion,” she added.

The fact that only 14% of women in Saudi Arabia own business establishments does not surprise me at all. Muslim women are on the front line of the last chance of the Islamic world to be dragged out of medival ages into the 21st century. If there is a hope for the West and Islamic worlds to reach some kind of peaceful coexistence on this planet, it lies in the Muslim women and their progressive thinking. None other is aware of that more than the Muslim radicals are and this ONE of the reasons why they continue their brutal practices towards their women. Women can be characterized as a fear factor in Islamic world.

What stunned me in the article, however, is the fact that ONLY 20 – 35 percent of women in Europe and America. Lift this percentage by 15%, and our businesses and economies become much more efficient. Why? Human factor - women are simply better.