Female Entrepreneurs in the Arab World

So I realized that I’ve written a lot about the food, tourist sights, and taxi rides so far in my blog, but haven’t actually talked about the reason why I’m in Tunisia – for my internship at CAWTAR.



The Center for Arab Women Training and Research, CAWTAR, is the main research center in the region dedicated to issuing reports about the political, social, and economic situation of Arab women. It’s really legit, frequently partnering with the UNDP, UN-INSTRAW, Oxfam, the Islamic Bank, and the World Bank.

My project:
I’m currently working on a report that assesses the situation of female entrepreneurs and identifies areas of improvement in seven Arab countries – United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Tunisia, The Occupied Territories of Palestine, and Algeria. For each country I’m creating a profile where I analyze the relationship between female entrepreneurs and current national research, government policies, cultural norms, legal environment, businesswomen’s networks, access to training, and access to credit.

“That much be a really short report”
That’s how a friend responded when I told them about my project, thinking that female entrepreneurs don’t really exist in the Arab world. Let me tell you, they definitely do. (As confirmed by my projected 120 page report) And I’m definitely learning a lot in the process.

Combating the stereotypes
So it’s true that female entrepreneurship is less common in the Middle East and North Africa than in other developing regions … but here are some things I’ve been learning.

* Not just microfinance: The widely held perception is that the few female entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa region are mainly in the informal or formal micro sector (employing fewer than 10 workers), producing less sophisticated goods and services. This perception is wrong. Of the formal-sector female-owned firms surveyed, only 8% are micro firms More than 30% are very large firms employing more than 250 workers.

* Annual Earnings: These firms are successful. For example in the United Arab Emirates, female-owned businesses faired considerably better than those in the US in 2007. 33% of the Emirate companies surveyed earning annual revenues of more than US$100,000, compared to only 13% of women-owned businesses in the US in the same year.

* Global Competitiveness: Female-owned firms are also active exporters, and a high share attract foreign investors and are heavy users of information technology—all key ingredients for global competitiveness. Female owned firms higher more women, and tend to promote women to higher managerial levels.

* Role Models: Women have fairly strong economic rights under the Islamic shari'a. In fact, many cite Khadijah, the Prophet’s first wife as an example of a wealthy and successful buinesswomen. Ibn Sa’d (8:9) describes her as a “woman of honor and power, and a hirer of men.”


Some Profiles :




Mona Almoayyed was recently listed as one of the top five most influential people in the Gulf Region. She was the first woman in Bahrain elected to the Chamber of Commerce and is the president of The Bahrain Businesswomen’s Society. She is the managing director o f Almoayyed & Sons, a business that sells, distributes, and services leading brands in sectors ranging from automobiles and electronics to office furniture and real estate. Her company currently employees over 2,000 workers.




Salma Hareb was listed first in Forbes Arabia top 50 most powerful Arab businesswomen. She is chief executive of Dubai's Economic Zones World and Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority. Her responsibilities include Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority's (Jafza) global operations, overseeing Techno Park and Dubai Auto Zone and being a member of the boards of the Dubai Export Development Corporation and Forsa, a group that encourages female entrepreneurs.




The barriers:
So given female entrepreneurs have a pretty great track record, why is the female labour force participation and number of female business owners so low? Of course its complicated, but these seem to be themes in my research.

Legal environment: While the legal environment is generally fairly favorable to women within the economic sphere, the legal environments outside the economic sphere may create barriers for female entrepreneurs. For example, women’s freedom of movement based may be limited based on work hours, plane travel, or driving. Also, social laws, such as personal status codes, may reinforce social roles that confirm men as the breadwinner and primary worker.

Access to Credit: Many businesswomen have cited that they have difficulty obtaining credit for a variety of reasons. These include disproportionally inheritance rights, discriminatory treatment at banks, and lack of education about credit sources. Many governments and non-government actors have focused attention toward microfinance to meet the need of female entrepreneurs. While expanding credit access for microenterprise is important, it is not sufficient to simply encourage women to participate in the informal economy. To highlight the full economic potential of women, training must be available to encourage the transition from the informal to the formal economy, to participate in lucrative export and import markets, and to be leaders in traditionally "male-dominated" sectors, like technology and natural resources.

Social norms: Social norms may help and hinder female entrepreneurs. For example, female entrepreneurs often cite that family connections may be a great source of support and that they have great ease managing other female employees. At the same time, gender social norms (ie that the primary role of the man is to be a breadwinner and the woman is to be a mother) are very strong and may limit female business women in a number of ways. For example, a survey of the unemployment rates demonstrates that women make up the majority of the unemployed workforce, even though they are not a large portion of the overall workforce, demonstrating that preference is given to men when jobs are short.


The optimism:

Many countries in the Middle East and North Africa have embraced the importance of encouraging female entrepreneurs. Female entrepreneur awards, TV channels, international conferences, policy reports, and business associations continue to multiple in number.

A BBC news report states that ”Arab women swathed in black Abayas are often perceived in the West as victims of oppression…But, "Now it is very politically correct to address women's issues," says Haifa Fahoum Al Kaylani, chair of the Arab International Women's Forum in London. "It is like a competition between Arab governments to encourage women to enter business and the political process.” Many policy makers have realized that more female entrepreneurs are needed in MENA to help diversify the economy and create 54 million jobs for an estimated 174 million-strong work force by 2030.

My research has convinced me that supporting female entrepreneurs is a powerful avenue to enhance the status of women and contribute to economic growth in the Arab world.