Bahraini women upbeat on workplace equality

Manama : Women in Bahrain are not far from achieving workplace equality to similar level in western countries, believe Bahraini women. 

According to Bayt.com’s Working Women in the Middle East Survey, 52 per cent of women in Bahrain believe that the country has achieved workplace equality ‘to some extend’. 

The question posed to the women was “Compared to working women in Western countries, to what extent have women in your country of residence reached the same level of workplace equality?” . To this the majority of women from Bahrain responded with ‘to an extend’, 24 per cent responded with ‘to a large extend’, 5 per cent said ‘not at all’ and the rest were unsure. 

The survey was aimed at analyzing the perceptions of women in the region when it comes to equality at work, motivations for employment, challenges faced at work, and life ambition.

50 per cent of the female respondents from Bahrain, however, reported they believe they work less than their male colleagues. 

Only 5 per cent said they work the equal amount of hours as men while 40 per cent said they work more hours than men, others were   unsure.  Responding to another question, 55 per cent of the women from Bahrain stated that they are conformable with working in a mixed gender environment while 10 per cent said they were extremely uncomfortable, others were neutral or ‘uncomfortable to an extend’.