Last week, Shaikha Bodour Al Qasimi, in her article for a local English newspaper and during the government summit in Dubai, reiterated the need to increase maternity leave for working women. Her voice was echoed by many more women and men alike, making the case that if you want to empower women, start by creating the right environment for them to not only strive in the workforce but also to thrive.

Today, on Mother’s Day, we all must realise that a generous maternity leave is not only the right thing to do, but also the smart thing. At the moment, 56 per cent of Emirati women do not participate in any economic activity and of the total UAE female work force, only 21.3 per cent are married.

There is a wide assumption that longer leaves for mothers will reduce productivity and cost businesses more. Since most arguments against extending maternity leave focus on the economic impact, perhaps it is time to assert that the long-term gains of investing in working mothers yields not only social benefits, but also economic and political ones.

According to the World Health Statistics 2013 (World Health Organisation), the UAE’s total fertility rate has declined from 4.4 to 1.7 per woman between 1990 and 2011. Declining birth rates are attributed to urbanisation, delayed marriage, changing attitudes about family size and increased education and work opportunities for women. Increased parental care and promotion of breastfeeding are beneficial to both mothers’ and children’s health. It can result in higher IQ levels among children and a smarter local workforce.

Inversely, research shows that maternal employment in a child’s first year of life can have long-run detrimental effects on cognitive development, affecting the child’s skills and eventually the local labour force. In addition, healthier children with stronger immune systems reduce health care spending in the long run through the promotion of preventative measures and spreading of knowledge about the negative effects of poor early nutrition.

Improving productivity

Furthermore, longer maternity leaves encourage women to stay economically active, which inevitably reduces resignations, absences, new recruitments and training costs. By being economically active, women can help reduce spending on unemployment and social benefits incurred by the government, balance the UAE workforce and increase the participation of total UAE employees.

Moreover, if we increase the number of women participating in the labour market and improve their productivity, especially in the private sector, then it can increase the proportion of registered pensioners. With the rise of living costs, working mothers can also participate in increasing the per capita income of the family and help promote economic stability and self-sufficiency.

There are so many examples of successful policies that show maternity leave benefits go beyond the mother and child.
In Sweden, for example, a country facing similar challenges with declining fertility rates, the implementation of family-friendly policies resulted in increased female hiring rate to (71.8 per cent) in relation to men at (75.6 per cent).

To promote birth, Singapore (where the fertility rate stands at 1.19) began awarding mothers with baby bonuses. The Baby Bonus Scheme, which was introduced in 2001, supports parents’ decision to have more children by helping to lighten the financial costs of raising them. A family thus receives a cash gift of up to $6,000 (Dh15,858) each for the first and second child and $8,000 each for the third and fourth.

The well-being of women and families creates multiplier benefits that most of us are not aware of. Empowering women and increasing their economic participation will in effect also improve the UAE’s international rankings — such as the World Economic Forum scale, the Social Institutions and Gender Index and OECD’s Better Life Index to name just a few). The country’s global standing helps attract more investment and promotes its image worldwide.

It is crucial not only to protect women’s employment during pregnancy and maternity leave, but also to ensure that maternity is not a source of discrimination.

The UAE has made great strides to empower women and encourage them to enter and excel in the economic spheres. However, there still is a long way to go. We should strive to achieve and provide the best for our working mothers. I am, by no means, a financial or an economic expert, but if there were something I would invest in, I would invest in mothers.

Asma I.Abdulmalik is a civil servant and social policy consultant, writing on gender and developmental issues.

Asma Malik

Articles from the author

Gift mothers a longer maternity leave