How do Qatari Females Make it to the Top? An Examination of the Organizational Constraints to their Advancement

Abstract

Although Qatari females have increased their economic participation and reached remarkable educational attainment over the last decade, this has not been paralleled with good representation at management position. Accordingly, this study was initiated with the aim to identify the main organizational constrains encountered by Qatari females throughout their careers. The study revealed that Qatari females are still very lowly representated at senior management levels although they have made good progress at medium and lower levels of management. It is also indicated that no current discrimination is made against Qatari females in terms of selection and recruiting, working hours, training, engagement in critical projects and compensation. However, the study reported that promoting Qatari females is still at low pace. Gender-specific as females’ family commitments was reported as the main constrain to their promotion from the males’ perspective and gender-difference as uncertainty of real increased responsibilities and authorities level were the main constraint to females’ promotion from the females’ perspective. The study ends by recommending, on the absence of major organizational discrimination, that greater inclusiveness of Qatari females in decision-making positions and greater accountability of organization to advance females should be considered critically in order to ensure the ease advancement of Qatari females to the top.

Closing the Divide: Women Empowerment in Qatar Between Rhetoric and Reality

“…They also emphasized the importance of religion and family in their lives. Similar to previous studies (Al Muftah, 2010), 15 of the participants believed that families played a crucial role as gatekeepers to access resources facilitated by the government. Additionally, the study found that age was directly proportional to the power held by these women.…”

Challenging gender norms: women’s leadership, political authority, and autonomy

“…Yet, social structure is fabricated with cultural constraints (i.e. the household division of labor, family structures and gender roles within households and societal barriers to traditionally male-dominated sectors) trigger concern about hindering gender equity in political authority and decision-making roles (Al Ghanim, 2008; Al Muftah, 2010; Crabtree, 2007) at the national, societal, and family levels, especially in conservative contexts (Thompson, 2015) within the Arab Gulf transitional societies.…”

“…There is, however, a notable absence of women in senior management roles and political authority positions (Al Muftah, 2010) due to the social structure that is fabricated into a patriarchal system (i.e. based on a hierarchy of authority governed and regulated by men), thereby creating sociocultural constraints (Said-Foqahaa and Maziad, 2011).…”