Economic development board issues a research paper on women’s role in Bahrain’s economy

The Economic Development Board (EDB) issued a research paper, titled "The Role of Bahraini Women in the Economy", which provides detailed statistics on women’s participation in the workforce, recruitment into the private sector, unemployment among women, female entrepreneurship, education and related legislation. The report also highlighted programmes run by Tamkeen as well as the different aspects of social life in the Kingdom, anticipating an increase in women’s participation in the economy by 5 percent to reach 45.6% in 2020 from its current level. The paper also indicated that the number of women joining the private sector has increased by 73.5% in 2010 to more than 25,000 as compared to 2002. This increment is higher than the rate of women recruitment in the public sector which stood at 45%. Despite all efforts being made to increase women’s participation in the private sector, women still represent only 5-6% of the overall work force in this sector. The average wage for Bahraini women grew from BD 317 in 2006 to BD457 in 2011. However, the difference between the average wage for men and women in the private sector still stands at 30%, in contrast to the public sector where women receive on average 10% higher wages than men. Sectors such as education and health are still considered the preferred sectors for women to work in, even though the number of women working in the manufacturing, trade and financial sectors has noticeably increased. Women on average attain a larger number of higher academic degrees after high school than men do, standing at 17.1% for women versus 14.4% for men. The rate of unemployment amongst women decreased to 3% in the last quarter of 2012, compared to 12% in 2002. In comparison the number of business and commercial licenses for women increased to 29% in 2012, which is 23% higher than its previous figure in 2008. A full electronic version of the report is available on the EDB’s Website, on the link: ww.bahrainedb.com (IY)