Boys will be boys, but girls are better

I have just read an article in The Economist about the changing pattern in parents' attitudes towards their firstborn. Earlier surveys, especially in the developing world, showed that parents preferred to have a boy instead of a girl. That was a must in agricultural societies where a boy was an strong, extra hand in the field.

However, that belief now is changing especially in the developing world, including Asia. Girls now are thought of as a better investment. The study found that girls get better grades than boys, graduate quicker and enter the job market faster. They also are excelling in investment and finance which were once exclusively the domain of men.

I have noticed also that the number of women financial analysts on television is increasing and that women are now often found in senior financial positions. After the Second World War, the number of women in the work force increased. The reason was that many had entered the work force while men were away in the military and when the war was over, they didn't want to go back home.

It wasn't long before their sisters of working age wanted to work as well. This huge increase in working women in the West became a driving force for growth especially in the past couple of decades. According to The Economist, these women have contributed more to global GDP than either new technology or the burgeoning economies of India and China. Today, two-thirds of American women work. Women make up half the US work force and they are ignoring the gender barriers of the past.

East Asian economies also are seeing a very evident increase in the number of working women. For every 100 men in the labour force, there now are 83 women. They have been, as the report says, very important to the success of Asia's export industries, accounting for between 60 per cent and 80 per cent of jobs in many export sectors such as textiles and clothing.

In Britain, more women than men train as doctors and lawyers. In America, 140 women enrol in higher education each year for every 100 men. In Sweden, the number is higher. What does this mean?

Senior positions

Women are taking more senior-level positions and becoming more involved in the decision-making processes of both business and industry. This also gives them a stronger social and political voice which should contribute significantly to both stability and security in society.

In the Gulf states, there has been fair progress in women's development; however, more needs to be done. Any society that neglects half its population assures its position as an also-ran among the nations of the world.

In Saudi Arabia, the number of female graduates is high and women are taking on tasks that a few years ago might have seemed unimaginable. They are taking positions of responsibility and they are succeeding because Saudi women are intelligent and eager to forge ahead and accept challenges.

We should be helping them to succeed rather than debating whether they should try. Educating women is a very important piece of the economic puzzle and, once it is done, it is a piece we cannot afford to ignore or fail to use.

This is a truth not lost on India or the Far East places where national economies are racing forward and national dialogues focus on the next economic or financial sector with no attention paid to who should be allowed to play the game.

Many of these nations are resource-poor except for their human populations. Imagine what a nation blessed by an abundance of natural resources would be able to do if it made its human resources the most important of all.

The problem we have in Saudi Arabia is twofold. The most pressing of which is how we can position ourselves in the super-competitive global economy and come out winners? As important for us is the internal challenge of how we can enable all the members of our work force both men and women to progress while keeping the tenets of our society intact.

It's a difficult challenge, but it is a challenge upon which the future success or failure of our nation will be determined. Ours is a faith-based country and that makes it an obligation, both to our children and our faith, to find a way forward or find ourselves in a situation in which both will suffer.

Part of that challenge is finding the way to make full use of our female talent. Our society must readjust its views and remove obstacles that make it harder for women to work and, at the same time, provide them with the flexibility to combine work with family life. We have to remember that well-educated Saudi women will not only be more productive; they also will raise healthier, better educated children.

If we had the luxury of time, it would be easy to say let those better-educated children figure out what to do. The fact is, however, that we do not have that luxury. It is incumbent upon us to find the way forward and to do so as soon as possible. The good news is that we have an incredible, largely untapped resource, greater than our blessings of oil, natural gas and minerals. She wears an abaya and her time has come.

Khaled Al Maeena is the Editor-in-Chief of the Jeddah-based Arab News