Women becoming ‘trendsetters on social media sites’

Dubai: Even though social media is viewed as an important tool for women’s empowerment in the Arab region, men remain twice as likely as women to be users of social media, an industry expert said at the second Gulf Cooperation Council Arab Social Media Summit which is held in Dubai.

“Despite the fact that Arab women have been active on social media sites throughout the Arab Spring, societal and cultural limitations were ranked as the main barrier for holding back from fully utilising the platforms,” said Racha Mourtada, research associate with the Governance and Innovation programme at Dubai School of Government.

She said that Saudi Arabia had a slightly higher percentage than UAE and Egypt.

Noor Shamma, acting director of corporate communications affairs at the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of UAE, said that women in the Arab region are becoming trendsetters on social media platforms despite below the global average for female participation.

“A career in these platforms is highly encouraging, and being involved with the development of the nation is particularly essential for the mothers, working women as well as parents and giving them ability to participate in conversations,” Shamma said.

Mourtada said that 33.4 per cent of Facebook users in the 22 Arab countries are women compared to 50 per cent of the global average. That is, one female Facebook user for every two men. Among the Arab world, Lebanon has the highest female users at 45 per cent. In the UAE, 32 per cent of the Facebook users are women.

She said that 26 per cent of the LinkedIn users are women in the Arab world which translates to one female user for every three male in the Arab World. Also, Arab region ranks lowest in the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) published by World Economic Forum.

Lebanon continues to be the most gender balanced of the Arab countries followed by Tunisia, Jordan, Palestine and Morocco.

“Social media has become more mature and people are using it as part of their daily lives,” said Heba Abu Shehadeh, head of community engagement and support at Yahoo.

Research shows women mostly use social media sites for getting news, information and advice on various issues.

“We live in a tech-savvy world where even our children live in digital interfaces and online offerings. About 3.7 per cent of the worldwide internet users are from the Middle East. About 40.2 per cent of the total Mideast population currently has internet access and an astonishing eight per cent of the Mideast online population access social media platforms every day,” Shamma said.

Mourtada said that the research shows clear similarities in the views of both male and female social media users. Arab men and women largely agree on issues related to social media and its implications for women and civic participation.

“Social media can potentially be a change agent towards women’s empowerment in Arab societies. It is positively viewed by many social media users as a medium that can trigger changes and offer new approaches for addressing these inequalities,” Mourtada said.