The Middle East (or sometimes referred to as the Near East) is a geographic term coined in the 1900s that very generally denotes the countries in southwest Asia and parts of North Africa that stretch from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian (or Arabian) Gulf, though definitions can vary due to the vast differences in languages and historical experience. The majority of these countries are Arabic speaking, hence the use of the Arab World.

Generally speaking, women have the right to work and own their own businesses across the region. However, there are some exceptions. For example, in some countries, a married woman is required to obtain permission from her husband or unmarried woman from her father before pursuing employment or traveling for work. In other countries, such as Saudi Arabia, women are required to appoint a guardian to handle many mundane tasks due to the strict segregation of sexes in banks and a host of other institutions.

According to the World Bank, the region has the lowest proportion of female entrepreneurs in the world.

The World Bank puts the percentage of women in non-agricultural jobs such as engineering and finance at only 21%.  A worthwhile read providing an overview of the legislative context for examining women’s participation in the workforce in the region is a recent report published by Clifford Chance. The report is entitled Legal Rights Applicable to Women in the Middle East and North Africa: Women and Work.

Women are not particularly well represented on boards of directors throughout the Middle East. The few statistics on this place women’s participation at below 2% of corporate board seats.

Quotas are not in place in most of the region, in December 2012, the UAE announced a quota for women on the boards for state-owned companies and placed the issue center stage for corrective measures to ensue.

Maternity leave varies greatly in the Middle East, though most employed women are granted and often there is a combination between paid and unpaid leave that can be availed.

Gender parity initiatives have shown success in increasing the attainment of education among females in the region, but have translated into one of the lowest ranking gains throughout the world in terms of closing the gender gap between men and women in health, education, work and politics. According to the World Economic Forum 2020 Report, the MENA region obtained the lowest score (61.1%). Assuming the same rate of progress, the report predicts it would take 150 years to rectify the gap.

With Saudi Arabia lifting the ban on women drivers in June 2018, women across the Middle East have full rights to drive cars. Fun fact: Saudi Arabian women could fly planes despite the ban on driving automobiles.

Unfortunately, few countries in the region allow women to pass on their citizenship to their children, though this has been changing in the recent past. The rule can often cause hardship such as not being able to avail public schools or public universities where the family lives in the mother’s country but the father is not a national of that country. The United Arab Emirates began allowing women to apply for citizenship for their children who have lived in the country for at least six years advancing a law that allowed applying for citizenship at age 18.