Bahrain ranks second regarding women's percentage in public sector's top positions

Manama, Mar. 29. (BNA) -- Bahrain ranked second with regards to the percentage of women in civil service top management among countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and first with regards to the presence of women in middle management in the public sector, at the level of Arab countries which took part in the report, published by the MENA programme at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD-MENA) for 2013 in cooperation with the Centre of Arab Women for Training and Research (CAWTAR). The report included 9 Arab countries (Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia and Yemen), and addressed three areas reviewing women’s participation in political life, public and private sectors. The mentioned report provides a number of recommendations addressed to the countries included. The Kingdom of Bahrain achieved this advanced ranking as one of the countries which has a national institution in charge of women empowerment at all levels as well as for being one of the pioneering countries in formulating a national women advancement strategy in line with international conventions. The report addressed the extent to which local legislations and gender-based strategies in the Middle East and North Africa are in line with international conventions with regards to equality between the two genders. The report has also reviewed the efforts made by countries included in the study with regards to women empowerment through setting policies and strategies for equality between the two genders, as well as providing gender based budgets and data. The report highlighted important details regarding the participation of women in political life, public and private sectors in decision making positions, illustrating disparity among the MENA region countries in terms of the percentage of women in decision making positions in political and public life. The percentage varies between 10 – 30%, especially that some of these countries implement the quota system. In the judicial field, the percentage of women in the Ministries of Interior and Justice increased to 25% in most countries included in the report, therefore, getting closer to the global average in this field. Regarding the participation of women in the public sector, Bahrain was ranked second place after Tunisia. According to the report, the percentage of women working in civil service top management reached 37%, passing the MENA region average of 29.1%. Also, Bahrain reached the first position in comparison with the countries included in the report with regards to the participation of women in middle management public sector with a percentage of 59%. The report addressed the participation of women in the private sector as well, highlighting that the Kingdom of Bahrain is one of the countries which has established non-judicial national organizations to protect human rights which includes the rights of women. The Kingdom has provides free legal aid services in the fields related to family and civil law. The report has recommended to the countries included to lift the reservations on CEDAW and to review discriminatory laws to empower women. It is worth mentioning that the report addressed a number of measures, legislations and laws which enabled the Kingdom of Bahrain to be placed in such advanced positions in this field. For example, labor laws in the Kingdom of Bahrain stipulate the principle of equality between men and women which resulted in many women reaching top management positions in the public sector as well as non-discrimination in terms of wages and the provision of suitable opportunities which enable women to achieve a work-family balance.