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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is keen to make a transition to a knowledge-based economy driven by innovative industries and entrepreneurship. But it can achieve this goal only if it builds a strong knowledge base in the fields of science, technology, and engineering (STE). Women can play an important role in this transformation if they contribute their intellectual might to this field. Using the survey and qualitative research methods, this article identifies the social, cultural, and economic factors that draw UAE women students to STE, and those that keep them away from pursuing careers in this field. The key factors that attract women students to a career in STE include financial independence, the exalted social status associated with this field, the opportunity to engage in creative and challenging projects, and plentiful work opportunities perceived in this arena in the region. The barriers that prevent UAE women from finding or even seeking employment in this field include misalignment between university programs and labor market demand, lack of awareness of what a job in STE entails, familial bias against working in mixed-gender environments, and lack of women role models who could inform women students about opportunities in these fields. The analysis also underlines the general unwillingness of the majority of Emirati graduates to consider careers outside the public sector. Findings from this study can contribute to developing policy recommendations to effectively support the development of local human capital in STE fields, which is critical for sustaining the economic transformation of the UAE.

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This study examines the charismatic leadership rhetoric of the Democratic Party’s nominee Hillary Clinton and the Republican Party’s nominee Donald Trump during the 2016 election. DICTION 7.0, content analysis software designed for political discourse, was used to analyze the campaign speeches of both candidates. The findings suggest that Donald Trump was significantly more likely to use hyperbolic crisis rhetoric regarding the intolerable nature of the status quo as well as rhetoric emphasizing a shared social identity, the pursuit of a common goal, and tangible outcomes. His communitarian rhetoric enabled the creation of a hermeneutic praxis shifting identity salience from the individual to the collective, encouraging the formation of collective memory and national nostalgia. Hillary Clinton, while employing egalitarian rhetoric, was constrained in her ability to utilize agentic rhetorical constructs due to stereotypical gender expectations and her positionality as a member of the incumbent party. The findings affirm presidential rhetoric as being anchored in political times and question the role of charismatic rhetoric in influencing the appeal, and potential electability, of the candidates during the 2016 presidential election.