THE second New Arab Woman Forum kicked off on Wednesday in Beirut with an agenda including topics that just a few years ago would have been considered too controversial to discuss in public in the Arab world. Sexuality and gender roles will be discussed, but however important some may consider those subjects, more immediate concerns such as women in the workplace are likely to receive far more attention. In the Gulf countries, for example, some 40 percent of wealth is in the hands of women and higher education graduate rates for women are higher than those for men, but the level of unemployed, educated women is far inferior to that of men. The vast majority of women in the business world are entrepreneurs and, in Lebanon, for example, many women are employed by the banking sector. Women are also underrepresented in governments and societies across the region, a situation that will be addressed by Dr. Thuraya Al-Arrayed, poet, writer, journalist and president of the Saudi Association for Media and Communication in Dammam. Even in the industrialized countries, women face special barriers, many of which would appear to be natural outgrowths of the place as women as mothers and caregivers as the turnover rate of women in the workplace is particularly high. It is believed that this stems from the demands of family, which is inherent in all countries, and the aversion on the part of men towards working women. There is no immediate solution to this problem. However, an Emirati writer, Ayesha Sultan, has voiced a simple first step: “Progress would be made if women try to strengthen themselves beside men, not remain behind them.” That step could be put into effect in many different ways and does not necessarily translate into an immediate flooding of the workplace by women. Instead, it implies a new attitude toward women that sees them as equal to men, whether in the workplace, in the education sector or at home. Perhaps, at this moment, only one thing is certain. If women are a precious possession of society, then it is only logical that we pay a good deal of attention to what they have to say. The New Arab Woman Forum is a place where that should most certainly be done. __
