Dina Saadeh, Managing Director, Blue BarracudaWe’ve been talking about gender equity for years, getting more women into leadership, making sure their voices are heard, and creating more opportunities.
I would say from when I started out until now, we’ve come a long way. We’re seeing more female voices being amplified, more women stepping into leadership positions and more male allies.
But real gender equity requires more than titles and a table with a seat.
It comes with acknowledging the differences – not just recognising the similarities – between genders in the workplace, specifically when it comes to parental roles, and especially in our region.
Let’s talk about motherhood. We can’t yet say we’ve understood what the mother-work balance should look like, or fully cleared the hurdle of pregnancy and maternity leave when it comes to job security.
The term ‘juggling act’ is more often attached to working mothers over working fathers. There’s ‘mom guilt’, but I don’t think I’ve heard of ‘dad guilt’.
Our region still has some of the lowest female labor force participation in the world.
Sometimes this is self-imposed with women choosing either to not enter the workforce or leaving their jobs completely because they don’t believe a motherhood-career balance is achievable in the current workplace.
This isn’t just a perception issue.
Motherhood and fatherhood look different and that’s ok. True equality isn’t about erasing differences but about making room for them.
This is where allyship comes in. Real progress isn’t just about cheering women on, it’s about understanding the unique challenges they face and actively making space for them to succeed. The best allies get that leadership doesn’t have to look one way. If someone is bringing real value to the table, what matters is the quality of their
contributions, not an outdated assumption about commitment, availability or ambition.
We’re making a lot of progress, and that’s something to celebrate. Just last week, KSA extended maternity leave to up to 12 weeks.
But, we can’t afford to be complacent because progress always brings backlash.
We’re not anywhere near gender equity yet, and the likes of Zuckerberg are already describing the model workplace as “culturally neutered” and wishing for the return of “masculine energy”.
The real challenge ahead of us is making sure that it’s not just about who gets a seat at the table, it’s about making sure no one is forced to shrink themselves to fit in.
By Dina Saadeh, Managing Director, Blue Barracuda.
