By Shaima AlTamimi (@iamshaima)
The UAE’s leadership has been instrumental in the growth of women entering the workforce by providing ample support to kick-start the dreams of ambitious women through educational funding, training, and attractive job placements. Nonetheless, despite such initiatives, the government may have overlooked one major issue; women resorting to long breaks from the workforce due to unfriendly maternity laws.
Ironically, the most attractive maternal leave policies are implemented within Europe. Since April 2010, the UK provides women (citizens or non citizens) a year’s paid maternity leave with the first 6 weeks paid at 90% of full pay and the remainder at a fixed rate. They also get an additional unpaid leave of up to 4 weeks per year by either parent. A friend of mine, who happens to be a single mother, is currently benefiting from this policy, and has expressed immense satisfaction in bonding with her baby without the stress of hiring help.
Subsequently, such policies ensure child to parent bonding, whilst fostering healthy child development within the infant’s life, a right that should be embedded in society to ensure the success of nurturing the future generations.
In stark contrast, women in UAE get 45 days of paid leave and a one-hour reduction in working time for nursing.
As the west excel onto further improving maternity laws for mothers, one can not help but wonder why this issue is not given enough attention in a region where motherhood is of monumental value in both cultural and religious contexts.
True, some women have the choice of resigning from their jobs in order to spend quality, uninterrupted time with their babies. However, for some, the luxury of giving up a steady source of income is simply a mythological concept. Therefore, women are in dire need of improved policy system in regards to maternity leave.
Yes, it is something that will require corporate and government spending, albeit it is money well spent. However, if companies do not feel obliged to pay for extended maternity leave in lieu of reducing costs, the least that can be done to support female employees is a longer time of half salary or unpaid leave beyond the 45 days. It is unfair to be faced with the ultimatum of continuing your job or missing out on the earliest stages of your child’s development. Where is the boost in employees’ morale there?
There are several factors that further halt the progression of women in the workforce. It is worth noting that a decade ago, being a working mother in the UAE was less stressful than it is now, since several companies operated from 7am to 2 pm. However, with the sudden boom of companies on the 9 to 5 run, being a working mother has become difficult to juggle without support from the in-laws or live-in maids.
It seems authorities forgot to consider the social implications of a 9 to 5 job. Mothers can no longer be home in time for lunch with their kids nor have the energy to start their homework at a decent time. How does that support our mothers or family orientated culture? To top it off, there is a distinct lack of day care nurseries that are within close range of work places. Ideally, such day care centers would have to be located in the same building as their offices, for mothers to be able to peek in every once in a while.
It comes as no surprise that women are mocked by society for transferring the child-rearing burden to the maids. Some women are patronized by their employers when they leave work early to care for their kids. With the further influx of foreign managers in the UAE, it has come to my attention that many do not realize that Arabs have a family oriented society, yet with that said, why does it feel like the policies implemented are in contrast to Arab culture?
Adjusting policies is more than just giving extra weeks off, but also about ensuring the protection of new or expectant mothers against corporate discrimination in promotions. For authorities to put together successful policies, they will have to conduct research with women in organizations, create focus groups and consult women who have been through such forms of disloyalty within the workforce.
Perhaps the Federal National Council (FNC) need to treat such campaigns as a top priority, rather than work on fighting for early female retirement in the workplace as announced in the news recently. Not that it is not welcome, however, there are issues of vital importance to tackle first, one of them being improved maternity leave policies. This will no doubt strengthen family relationships and enhance employee loyalty in the workplace.
May 2011’s issue:
Here We Start – Archive80 Report – Community Talk – Food for Thought
Just Another Undergrad – Living Through The Eyes of Art
Scenes From Life – To The Point – Words, Observations, and Ramblings
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wonderfully put and i completely agree with you. It is very important that a mother plays a major role the initial year of her child’s development by being available. However, as a business owner, I find it very difficult to accept this even if it was subsidized by the government. The interruption of work can potentially destroy me as a small business. Therefore, I believe that this may be a great idea for smaller less essential roles but can backfire majorly for crucial roles. Would love your thoughts :)
Thanks for your feedback Mohammed, appreciate your thoughts. Yes i understand the struggle that SME's might go through to support new moms, and I think that alternative solutions are still reachable. Perhaps the laws can be somewhat adapted to suit SME's diffeently than larger corporations. Working from home after the 45 day leave, is a perfect example of satisfactory comrpomise, thework gets done whilst the mother still gets to spend more time with her new born at home. As previously mentioned, some companies may find it a huge burden to finance longer periods of maternity leave, but the issue here is not always about the pay, but the flexibility of this can work for both parties. Whether is flexi time, work from home, or even part time. Options are much needed. I hope that helped :
Shaima
You are so right, dear Shaima! Supporting working mums and giving them a framework that enables them to juggle job and babies makes so much sense. Woman tend to be highly educated and the society as a whole will greatly benefit form providing a framework that enables woman to work and bring up kids instead of more or less force the ladies into full-time-motherhood due to lack of flexible alternatives. A paid maternity leave will encourage much more ladies to have kids and convenient child-care facilities can back-up the return to the job. In Germany the parent can decide if mother or father are taking the governmental supported "parent-time". Equal rights – ideally parents shall be free to decide, who is taking time off.
@Mohamed – completely understandable from a point of smaller enterprises. A bit of planning might be possible- hiring a them already during pregnancy and if the young mother is out of the job for a year or so, it might be even easier to have a good replacement than to cover just for a shorter period.
It's a difficult path. On the one hand, you want to foster strong family relationships. On the other, it's difficult to do this while keeping small businesses in the black. Yes, it would need to be government funded. In Australia, a woman is entitled to 1 year maternity leave, but it is unpaid. There is absolutely NO paid maternity leave for the private sector, 3 months for public sector. The greatest problem resides in the return to work. Women are only entitled to return to the job they left. And with an underfunded child care system, this is difficult. This results in many women having to resign and looking for part time work elsewhere. No matter what way we look at it, and from whatever viewpoint, it will be impossible to keep everyone happy.