Omani Women’s Day: Giant strides across sectors

The year 2019 has seen two more women joining the Council of Ministers as the Sultanate celebrates Omani Women’s Day on Thursday. Azza bint Sulaiman al Ismaliya and Dr Suad bint Mohammed al Lawatia will spearhead the development in the respective fields. Within days Oman will witness the Majlis Ash’shura elections where more women candidates are contesting. Out of more than 700 candidates, 43 women are vying for the 86 seats. The number of students studying in the Sultanate’s schools in 2019/2020 has touched 759,307, and around 50 per cent of them are girls. The student ratio tips a bit in higher education where there are more women in higher education. Finding the job opportunities continues to be a challenge for both men and women. The Ministry of Higher Education, in cooperation with Oman Society for Petroleum Services (OPAL), conducted a study on women empowerment in the oil and gas sector in 2018. In the Sultanate, women constitute less than 10 per cent of the total workforce in the oil and gas sector whereas their participation ranges between 20 and 25 per cent worldwide. In the local private sector, the study pointed out, the participation is 25.4 per cent of total number of Omanis in this sector. To understand the situation further, the study statistics show that about 85.7 per cent of employed graduates in the oil and gas sectors are engineers. The twist is with the next two figures — 36.6 per cent of the students in engineering specialisations are women, but they constitute only 16.1 per cent of the total number of applicants to this sector. The study revealed that currently less than 2.7 per cent of women work in concession sites, but 29.5 per cent of them are currently working in office-based jobs and are willing to be relocated to concession areas if provided with suitable facilities and schemes. Another area of ​​concern for the women has been their representation in management positions. Currently females constitute 4.2 per cent in management positions. More than 70 per cent of women of a total of 1,182 from oil and gas sector who completed the online survey believed there is a need for more women in senior positions. The study states that in the three highest private commercial activities and industries in employing graduates in the oil and energy sector 12.8 per cent are women, 10 per cent in engineering and engineering services, and 9 per cent in construction. The study goes on to confirm the gender disparity in employing graduates in the oil and gas sector by looking at the figures of female employees in the sector which was 8.3 per cent of the total number of Omanis working in the sector.