Women in UAE have strong feeling of equality

Dubai: Women in the UAE have a strong feeling of equality compared to their counterparts, while family, respect and ethics are the top common values in the UAE, according to the UAE National Values Survey.

The survey was carried out by the Barrett Values Centre, with over 4,100 participants from all over the UAE. Male participation stood at 54 per cent while female participation was 46 per cent.

Moreover, 57 per cent of respondents were Emirati while 43 per cent were non-Emirati.

Richard Barrett, founder and chairman of Barrett Values Centre, said that equality and fairness are some of the key messages seen in the survey results.

“Against the general view of how women feel in the Middle East, women that participated in the UAE survey strongly expressed the equality they enjoy in the country,” he said.

Twenty five per cent more men voted for more equality than women, according to the survey.

“This indicates that current practices in the UAE reinforce and support women’s rights and ensure their ability to pursue opportunities for growth and development,” Barrett said.

“Along the same notion of equality, we see a low level of discrepancy between nationals and non-nationals in current and desired values, which indicates a strong sense of partnership, ownership and harmony by residents in the UAE — regardless of their back-ground.”

There is almost a 70 per cent match of the desired values voted for by both segments and an almost 70 per cent match in personal values between both segments, he added.

At a personal level, the survey results also show that people living in the UAE strongly value their relationships with family and are strongly committed to keeping ethics.

The top personal values selected include caring, family, respect, honesty, ethics, achievement, ambition and commitment, cooperation and being liked.

This indicates that people in the UAE support the current developmental efforts taking place and seek to support such efforts in the future.

Additionally, the survey results indicate that UAE residents uphold personal values,

Why values?

Barrett says common values unite people.

“The values we hold represent what is important to us, reflect our need and motivate our actions and determine our behaviours. Our level of happiness and contentment is determined by the extent to which we are able to get what we want and meet our needs,” he said.

“We believe that nations, communities and organisations prosper and thrive when their leaders are focused on building value-driven cultures that respond to citizens and employees needs — when there is an alignment between what people value and what they experience in their lives.”

The study also measured the level of dysfunction and negativity that people were feeling in the UAE at the national level.

Barrett remarked that this is referred to as “cultural entropy”.

With an overall national entropy result of 12 per cent, the UAE has the second-lowest level of cultural dysfunction of 18 countries studied by the Barrett Values Centre since 2007.

Dherar Bilhoul, general manager of Watani, said that despite the demographical diversification in the emirates, people in UAE feel that the society is on the right track and this has been proven by the low level of cultural entropy.

“The survey showed a huge [matching of values] among people across the UAE. This in reinforces the message of satisfaction that people currently feel in the UAE.”

Moreover, the result of the study also reflects the efficiency of existing engagement and cultural mechanisms that facilitate the relationship between nationals and non-nationals in the country, he added.