International Women's Day: women speak up

As we celebrate International Women's Day today, women in the UAE are debating topical issues affecting their gender.

At UAE University's women's campus, students celebrated the occasion with a debate organised by the Debate Society of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) in cooperation with Newspapers in Education, a Gulf News initiative.

On the opening day, students put up a spirited demonstration of logical arguments for and against three motions. The motions were: governance is best reserved for men; professional schools in the Gulf (medicine, law, etc) should reserve half their seats for women; and the best boss is a woman boss.

The judges' panel included Maysam Ali from Notes, Gulf News, Aida Al Busaidy, vice-president of internal communications at Dubai Group and a co-host of Dubai One's popular programme Her Say, and Dr Mariam Bayshak, assistant dean for student success at the CHSS.

The university celebrated women's day over three days under the slogan '2009: Our Year to Shine!' Students, faculty and staff participated in activities and events centring on the theme of women, their accomplishments and their aspirations.

The College Debate Society's coordinator Dr Jonathon Penny said: "Scheduling the first debate to coincide with International Women's Day celebrations and partnering with Gulf News provided our female students with a topic and a theme that lies close to their hearts and the resources to find out what is happening across the UAE and the rest of the world."

Female students were not afraid to slug it out and fiercely defend their positions as part of either the proposition team, arguing in favour of the motion, or the opposition team. Many supported their arguments with statistics and examples taken from history books.

While some teams argued that women were more than capable in the workplace and in government jobs, those opposing this assertion said women were not fit to hold certain positions because of their emotional nature, physical weakness and poor leadership skills.

"Statistics verify that women are more likely to pursue higher education than men. We need only compare the ratio of women to men enrolled in institutions of higher education," said Mariam Al Shamsi, who argued that professional schools should reserve half their seats for women.

The opposition team said women's roles were as nurturers at home and that women should not be given half the seats in a college because admission should be based on merit.

The students based their arguments on research in the fields of biology, psychology, business, religion and other scientific and art fields. They gave examples to highlight their argument.

Post-debate, students who attacked women's rights in the workplace and as leaders admitted that it was hard for them to argue against women's advancement. The judging panel recognised their efforts and the humour they brought in while rebutting arguments.

The winners were judged according to their preparation, poise and speech delivery, the effectiveness of their speeches and rebuttals, and the thorough and provocative summation.

The overall winners - a group of three students - argued that the 'best boss is a woman boss'.

This was the first initiative of the 'Newspapers in Education' campaign launched by Gulf News. Such endeavours will be carried out in the future also, ensuring newspapers can play an important role in nurturing the minds of young adults.

A group of three students at UAEU University won the 'Listen Up' debate on women's issues last week in Al Ain.

Left: UAE University student opposes the idea that women make the best bosses, while her colleague (below) proposes the idea that governance is best reserved for men.