COM360-002 Increase the number of female employees in UAE Sara Abdulla 2011112724 Nouf Ibrahim 201204554 Shaikha Sultan 201214640 Noura Salem 201007427 Introduction: This research is about viewpoint of UAE society and parent to women who work in communications fields. The theory that we use in research is feminist theory. Therefore, a historical analysis of the feminization of public relations, why women are drawn to the field, the obstacles female practitioners face. (Taylor,2013). The goal of our research is to know about the culture limitations, we will discuss more about the role of women in communication fields and how the government support them in their works. The purpose of out study the how the society looks to the women who works in communications sector and how the government support them to commitment to the UAE tradition in their work. Cultural hurdles are keeping many Emirati women out of the workforce or limiting their choice of careers, despite the great progress being made. (ALMazroui,2012) FAMINIST THEORY IN RESEARCH: The tradition narratives it may be totalitarian in the way they violate the rights of the girls exaggerating the role of future men in the social life. And how the society and family views of working women especially when it comes on how they communicate in the work place. There are lots of things not only the society that effect idea of working women in the both ways such as, family, traditions, culture, government, and many more. We have chosen the feminist theory to support our points, I believe the feminist theory is applicable because it focuses on social issues which tend to narrow on discrimination and exclusion on the basis of gender, economic and structural inequality, objectification, stereotypes, gender roles and oppression along with many others. But what is happening even more recently is that the government is supporting the women and pushing them to work. According to the article titled: “History and theory of feminism” we can observe that in regards to the key components of the feminism theory we can observe the liberal feminism concept fits best in this case of women being supported and encouraged by the government to take up jobs. They are capable of accomplishing equality without changing the framework of society. For instance, if the government is providing them opportunities to work, they can have access to gain that independence and freedom to earn a decent living, even though they may demand equal pay and work as the same level as men. (History and theory of feminism, n.d) Most of the families in UAE they do not let their girls to work because the girls will need to interact with the men at their work. And most of them have the Gender stereotype issues, they think that women cannot be successful in the work place and her job is only to raise her kids and to stay at home, but the government has a different point of view. And the Government recently is high ring lots of women in leadership jobs, which means they believe on women and they what she is capable of. In Fudge study (2013) notes that lots of women cannot work or in other words their families do not allow them to work because of traditional narratives, they don’t want their girls to interact with men they think that it’s like a sin but the government notes the importance of women in employment that this is an important subject considering the correlation of their paid work and legal norms of equality. During the second wave of feminism theory during the 1970s women could emerge as free sellers of their labor by considerably demolishing the legal and normalizing structure that assigned women’s dependence. In fact, work-life balance policies were formulated to accomplish a new accommodation between the procedures of production and necessities of social reproduction in the light of the breakdown of the post-war gender order. With respect to the equality for women in employment it would be ambiguous (like a mystery) if there were no new methods of life beyond make and female roles and encouragement is needed to create diversified employment along with working time patterns without any loss of rights. So, in this case, it is important that women are offered diversified job roles by the government instead of simply offering some fixated or conventional job roles, i.e. teachers, nurses, administration, secretary or doctors. Women deserve to be liberated from a ferocious economic system, which fails to value their work that goes into maintaining social life. Since women are limited to what kind of jobs they can undertake it tends to undermine their capability and capacity of what they can offer because culturally and socially speaking women are less equal than men. But as per the feminist theory, it proposes that women deserve the exact rights as men in all aspects of their life. Their horizons of employments should not be limited by the government to only conventional roles and women should not simply be perceived as homemakers or taking care of the children but have professional responsibilities that contribute towards the economy of the country. Literature Review: • UAE Women in communication fields: Culture has significant influence over the women who work in communication fields. Many families in UAE have different traditions and believes about mixing between men and women. A study was test in Father- Daughter succession in family business (2011) Traditions and Muslims faith may also limit cross gender interaction between women and men at work. Overall, the rapidly developing Emirati society is greatly affected by foreign culture influences. The study defined The involvement of women and men in the same place of work and communicate together to have a serious impact on the Muslim community, which is negative values in society of the United Arab Emirates. The parent beliefs that if women work in the field of communication that will lead to mixing between males and some families in UAE have limited thinking in the field of communication and work place they beliefs that effect on the customs and traditions and religious. For example, (Todd,2016) Women working away from home challenges the traditional power and status differences between men and women in the UAE. Some people prefer their daughters to work in the specialist sector for women, such as schools or Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank. In fact, there are some communities in UAE believe that women could not take a high position in her work like men because (Aljenaibi,2010) They thought that married women who had children were affected by their motherly emotions and responsibilities. However, Men continue to receive employment preferences in high state administration and private businesses. Women do not play a significant role in politics and religious life, as these areas are considered male domains. (UAE,2017) that is show us in UAE society they think that women should stay at home and think about any home business like cooking, sewing and teaching kids in home. • Reasons that lead the UAE women to work: According to Yusuf (2009, P. 412), he conducted that in the UAE there has been a considerable growth in female self-employment, women nowadays at a rate higher than men. Females are more educated and have more knowledge than men. UAE women has been increased through the past few years and they are marking their presence in society as ministers, civil servants, university professors, teachers, lawyers and much more. There are many UAE women that work in the public sector. Also a women entrepreneur has been succeeded in entering the job market. Moreover, UAE women do not only work in managerial positions but they also are leaders in high positions in different sectors. UAE women are gradually increasing in the workforce and well trained in order to work in jobs that are previously performed by expatriates. The Emiratization policy has increased the percentage UAE nationals in the total workforce. That policy leads women to work in different sectors and positions in the UAE. Omair (2010, P. 126) found that the Arab region witnessed a great increase in women that start working in different sectors. In the UAE, the women increased in participating in the labor market and getting high positions in many organizations. Also to support the Emiratization policy, which is, designed to encourage women and men to work instead of expatriates. On the other hand, Islam always encourages women to be educated, work and own businesses. If the women will contribute in a positive way in her society, she can do it and prove that. Also Islam does not forbid women from working in positions of authority. The things that lead women to work in the UAE are the Emiratization policy and the appreciation that they make for the women in here. UAE women are well educated and have the ability to be in a high position and represent herself and her country in a very good and respectful way. There is no difference in between men and women; they all get the same appreciation. • UAE Government Support Women to Work: The number of working Emirati women increased in the last few years. According to the gulf news more than 50% of women in the UAE are working in governmental companies. This huge percentage of working emirate women proves that the government made many big efforts to encourage and push women toward working. one of these efforts is the maternity leave. Usually the governmental companies give women who just have a baby a vacation which is the maternity leave to rest and take care of the new baby. Women used to have 45 days off with full salary until the government announce the new news about this kind of vacation. The government increased the maternity leave to 3 months with full salary. According to (Afridi & Angell,2011) If a women employment with the employer has been for less than one year, she is entitled to such maternity leave with half salary. An employee is entitled to full salary while on maternity leave. Following her maternity leave, a female employee can be absent from work without a salary for a maximum period of 100 days (consecutive or otherwise), if that absence is due to an illness resulting from pregnancy or delivery that prevents her from resuming her work. This kind of vacations is important for women who work and have family at the same time and increasing it was an encouraging decision for women to continue working without having any fear of losing their job. Moreover, it gave women the time to manage between family and work without ignoring one of them which gives an idea that both family and work are important in women life. Also it shows how the government cares about working women and encouraging them to work. Summary: Feminist theory is the best theory for these kinds of issues, to understand why government wants to achieve gender quality and to understand why some families have this kind of point of views on female workers. In a country like the U.A.E where women have been fortunate to receive the support of the government, it is a positive sign that the government is creating job roles for women and encouraging them to come forward to take up employment because they are as important to the societal and cultural structure as men are and they be more successful in the leader ship jobs. The limitation of UAE culture about women in workplace and some Emiratis families do not acceptable their daughters or wife to communicate and mixing with men in workplace. Their commitment to the customs, traditions and religion. In last years the number of female employee were increased and the government made a big effort to encourage the women toward working such as, give women baby vacation is the maternity leave to rest and give women full salary, also female employee can absent from the work without salary for maximum period of 100 days (consecutive or otherwise). Emiratization policy has helped many UAE women and encouraged them to work in any work field. UAE women are educated and well trained to work in any positions. There is no difference between women and men in any work field. They have the same abilities and if UAE women will contribute in a positive way in her society, she is encouraged to do that. References: Taylor U. (2013), A Historical Analytical Study of Feminization in the field of public relation, Southeastern University: http://firescholars.seu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&context=honors ALMazroui A. (2012), Emirati women and workforce in a clash of culture: http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/emirati-women-and-workforce-in-a-clash-of-culture Feminist perspectives on globalization (2014) Retrieved Feb 25th, 2017. From https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-globalization/ Fudge, J (2013) Women workers: is equality enough? Retrieved Feb 25th, 2017. 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