Women struggling to break through the glass ceiling in the corporate world are taking matters into their own hands and reaching the top increasingly through entrepreneurial spirit, according to Natalia Sycheva, senior manager of entrepreneurship and special projects, at Dubai Start-up Hub.
The initiative, part of Dubai Chamber, has been in operation in the emirate since 2016 and served, through its programmes, more than 8,000 entrepreneurs and founders.
Sycheva told Arabian Business many women were looking to chart their own path rather than climb the corporate ladder. She said: “Let’s step back and think about what opportunities are available for females in the 21st century? You could pursue a corporate career, a government career, or you could pursue entrepreneurship as a path.
Natalia Sycheva, senior manager of entrepreneurship and special projects, at Dubai Start-up Hub.
“If you think about a corporate career, let’s look at the numbers, according to the S&P500 Index, the number of female CEOs leading those companies has doubled over the past ten years and today it stands at 37, which is just six percent of the whole companies there; six percent of women get to the top, to lead, in the corporate world.
“In entrepreneurship, in the UAE what we’ve seen in the past, the number could reach up to 50 percent of start-ups and enterprises having the female co-founder.”
As the leading start-up hub in the Middle East and North Africa, Dubai continues to create attractive incentives for businesses such as a golden card permanent residency system for expat investors, a five-year visa for entrepreneurs and a program enabling overseas remote working professionals to live in Dubai while continuing to serve their employers in their home country.
SMEs make up 99 percent of private sector companies in Dubai and estimated to contribute around 46 percent of the emirate’s GDP and 53 percent of the UAE’s GDP in 2019. The UAE federal government aims to expand the latter to 60 percent by 2021.
UAE-based start-ups raised $577 million in venture funding – 56 percent of the MENA total for 2020, with Dubai start-ups estimated to account for over half that figure.
And according to a World Bank study looking at the level of entrepreneurial aspiration among women around the world, in the UAE the figure stands at 36.6 percent, one of the highest in the world.
“We’ve had the ease of doing business, which has been pushed and progressively improved by the government and all the stakeholders,” said Sycheva. “And the whole publicity around entrepreneurship as a potential field and technology as an enabler, allowed the females to look at entrepreneurship as the new path to realise their business ambition, leadership ambition and this is what we see in the end, up to 50 percent of the early idea stage start-ups in the programmes of Dubai Start-up Hub are females.”
Emirati entrepreneur Khawla bin Hammad, founder of Takalam.
Emirati entrepreneur Khawla bin Hammad, founder of Takalam, told Arabian Business the current environment is both “very supportive” and “empowering”.
She said: “The well-established eco-system, gender equality policies, and women’s empowerment makes it very appealing for female entrepreneurs. There are several government initiatives and programs that are tailored towards women only, giving them easier access to finance, mentorship and market opportunities.”
Females in the UAE need not look far for inspirational figures, such as Sheikha Lubna, who was the first woman to hold a ministerial post in the country, serving as Minister of State for Tolerance, Minister of State for International Cooperation, and Minister of Economic and Planning of the UAE; Reem Al Hashimi, who is director general of Expo 2020 Dubai and chairperson of Dubai Cares; Amal Al Qubaisi, the first female leader of a national assembly in the UAE and the Arab world; and Sarah Al-Amiri, chairperson of the UAE Space Agency and the Emirati Minister of State for Advanced Sciences – while the recent historic, successful Emirates Mars Mission saw women make of 80 percent of the program’s scientific team.
Sycheva said it was “paramount” that young women had idols who they can look up to. She said: “It’s to inspire a talent to take on this new, challenging path of entrepreneurship, but also inspire the next generation of entrepreneurship to make an impact, thinking about the environment and thinking about the community and thinking about giving back and pulling the next generation of entrepreneurs.”
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