Title: Working mothers in the United Arab Emirates
Authors: Ammara Amanat Ali; Martin Sposato
Addresses: UAE ' College of Business, Zayed University, P.O. Box 19282, Dubai, UAE
Abstract: This article identifies the challenges faced by professional women, including mothers, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the coping mechanisms that these women have developed to overcome them, in the context of the UAE. Working mothers encounter numerous challenges such as lack of support from management, absence of sympathetic policies in the private sector, hiring prejudices, obstacles to leadership positions, and inappropriate questions during interviews, among others, these issues lead to a number of personal and professional challenges. Despite the current challenges, there are positive signs for the future, as the government of the UAE has introduced legislation and is taking concrete action to address some of these problems. This paper contributes to the existing literature on working mothers by exploring the experiences of mothers in the UAE and highlighting the particular issues that arise in the context.
Keywords: working mothers; motherhood penalties; career development; work-life balance; gender pay gap; UAE services sector.
DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2023.135501
International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2023 Vol.32 No.4, pp.543 - 559
Received: 28 Apr 2021
Accepted: 23 May 2021
Published online: 15 Dec 2023 *