Today is International Women’s Day 2025, an annual day for celebrating the achievements of women worldwide, whilst also calling for gender equality. Here’s how the Kingdom is accelerating action towards greater gender parity as well as some of the women making their mark.
When it comes to women’s empowerment, Bahrain has some notable “firsts”. The Kingdom was the first Arabian Gulf country to adopt girls’ formal education, opening its first public school for girls nearly 100 years ago, in 1928. This paved the way for today’s generations of Bahraini female students enrolled in higher education. Today, women make up a large constitution of STEM enrollments. In 2002, Bahraini women were also granted the right to vote, making it among the first in the region.
The Kingdom of Bahrain has always invested in the equal rights of women, ensuring they are represented in various fields in turn creating a more inclusive world in one that has been traditionally male-dominant. Recent years have seen remarkable progress in women’s empowerment and representation in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which has proven to support economic growth, development and prosperity. Their involvement and contribution are key, and Bahrain was among the first to realise and invest in this.
Here we highlight the transformation of women’s representation in Bahrain and the wider Gulf region through key developments, initiatives and female leadership.
Closing the gender gap
The WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report 2023 highlighted Bahrain’s striking gender gap gains as the Kingdom moved up 18 places – the most improved country in MENA that year. The Kingdom maintained its gender parity score in the 2024 WEF Global Gender Gap Report.
This is a reflection of the success of the women’s programmes and initiatives as well as the leading role that women play in the Kingdom’s economic development. It is built on education initiatives that have resulted in Bahrain’s position as a global leader that ranks in the top five globally for girls outperforming boys in learning outcomes in the World Bank Human Capital Index.
Skills to succeed
This success has been achieved through robust digital and science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) skills training, as well as high female enrolment in tertiary education: 42% of those who enrol in STEM degrees in Bahrain are women. In fact, according to the 2022 Inclusive Internet Index, conducted by Meta and Economist Impact, Bahrain ranks first globally in female digital-skills training and STEM education.
The Labour Fund (Tamkeen) has been a key driver of these upskilling and career development efforts whilst working to close gender gaps in the private sector and increase economic participation of women across key sectors.
However, even as a regional leader in gender and wage equality, we cannot stop working towards even greater equality, there is always more that can be done. The Bahrain Skills and Gender Parity Accelerator, launched by Tamkeen and the WEF at Davos this year, is a recognition of this. It will further close the gender skills gap, help develop female expertise relevant to digitalised roles of the future, and boost female employment, especially in high-growth industries like technology and advanced manufacturing.
Empowering women’s employment
Bahrain has also made significant strides towards wider gender parity across the workforce in recent years. Women made up 49% of the workforce in 2021, with a participation rate of almost 43%. Moreover, Bahrain leads the GCC in the percentage of ministerial positions held by women at 21.7%, according to the World Bank, whilst women hold 48% of senior government positions in the Kingdom.
There have been noteworthy gender gains in the information technology (IT) sector too. 75% of the IT technical development program trainees are women, and, as of Q2 2023, females constitute 40% of the total ICT workforce in the island nation. At Citi’s Global Technology Hub in Bahrain women make up 22% of the total Bahraini participants at the Hub, which is greater than the average of females in other Citi tech hubs around the world.
It should therefore be no surprise that Bahraini women are also tech leaders, comprising nearly one-in-five startup founders – an achievement that exceeds comparable figures in London and Silicon Valley.
Female leaders bucking the trend
Progress is not just measured in numbers though. Visible role models are vital for the aspirations of young women too. In Bahrain, and across the GCC, women are forging successful careers in traditionally male-dominated sectors.
Some have launched successful tech platforms, such as Wafa AlObaidat, the Bahraini CEO of Playbook. Fittingly, Playbook is a platform dedicated to inspiring and empowering professional women in MENA.
In finance, Yasmeen Al-Sharaf led the formation of the FinTech & Innovation Unit, the first initiative of its kind in MENA, and is its current Director. The World Bank spotlighted her when they looked at some of the “women in the GCC taking over tech”.
Those who have risen to the very top of the banking and business worlds include Lubna Olayan, who has been the Chairperson of SAB since 2019. Another Chairperson, Henadi AlSaleh of the Kuwaiti logistic company Agility, was named one of the Forbes Middle East’s 100 most powerful businesswomen, whilst Noor Alkhulaif, The Minister of Sustainable Development, is now also the Chief Executive of the Economic Development Board of Bahrain. Alongside her in Bahrain, Fawzia Zainal has become the first female parliamentary speaker in the Kingdom.
And in what is often termed “the final frontier”, biomedical researcher Rayyanah Barnawi became the first Saudi female astronaut to go to space and visit the International Space Station (ISS).
Moreover, this year, Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Businesswomen in the Middle East list includes women from 32 sectors and 29 nationalities. The UAE is home to 46 women on the list, Saudi Arabia with 9 women and Bahrain with 4.
Looking towards the future we can see that not only has the “glass ceiling” been shattered, but that no field or frontier remains out of reach for women. We can celebrate and continue this success through more dedicated initiatives, programmes and resources designed to accelerate action for greater gender parity and wage equality. The link between female empowerment and economic prosperity is ever more clear in ensuring continued economic development, growth and sustainability.
