UN Millennium Development Goals and gender equality in employment in the Middle East

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to address issues relating to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UNMDG) in the Middle East, analysing socio‐cultural issues having direct relevance to the region's progress toward “Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women”.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employ meta‐analyses with data from the United Nations, the Arab Human Development Report, and various sources of measurement of national means for Hofstede's five‐dimensional model of cultural value.FindingsThe authors find that the percentage of women in employment, excluding the agricultural sector, in their sample of Middle East countries has declined since 2000, while in the samples of other Muslim‐majority and all other countries the percentage employed has increased.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of the authors' research are that complete sets of data for women in employment are not available for all years for all countries in their samples.Practical implicationsImplications for practice for governments and businesses in Middle East countries are that women are a valuable economic resource which is being excluded from contribution and for the past decade the change in the Middle East has been in a negative direction.Social implicationsThe economic contributions and rights of women in the Middle East lag behind most of the developed and developing nations, including other Muslim‐majority nations.Originality/valueThis study provides empirical evidence from publicly available data concerning the employment status of women in Middle Eastern nations. The authors found no similar empirical studies in the literature. The study is of value to planners and policy‐makers in business, government, and non‐governmental organisations.