Most sociologists would probably agree that it is the human resources of a nation, not its capital or its material resources, that ultimately determine the character and pace of its economic and social development.
Qatar is oil rich Gulf State, taking in account that oil and natural gas reserves could be depleted, but the human capital could always keep the development. Women were seen as equally important participants in the emerging economy.
Qatar is a state in transition, a state in which the way of life is changing. In the last decade its relatively simple and well-integrated culture has become a more complex with new needs, a culture in which the old and the new values meet either with conflict or harmony. Qatar is a developing country and as such faces many of the challenges and problems of sustained development. Its main challenge appears to be that of dealing with wealth from oil and gas revenues in away to assure their optimal use and to prevent or minimize social and individual disintegration. To meet this challenge a new government institutions have evolved, new concepts of administration has been introduced, technology has been imported, education, health and other public services has been expanded and developed, and a new democracy in framework of Islam established.
On the other hand human development is about people, about expanding their choices to lead lives they value. Fundamental to enlarging human choices is building human capabilities. The most basic capabilities for human development are leading a long and healthy life, being educated, having access to the resources needed for a decent standard of living and being able to participate in the life of one’s society.
Qatar has achieved to some extent the millennium goals in account to human development indicators specially women empowerment.The advancement of women and the achievement of equality between women and men are a matter of human rights and a condition for social justice. Empowerment of women is a prerequisite for achieving political, social, economic, cultural and environmental security among all people.
The late decades witnessed an evolution in global thinking on the role of women in development. Development theory came to recognize that women were a potent catalyst of rapid economic growth in terms of education, health, and demographic change. Those changes were by-product of many conferences and declarations on women since 1995 the year of Copenhagen Social Summit, as well as Beijing Platform Action and Beijing + 10,and Beijing +15 , those conferences attempted to give policy direction to women’s issues at time of great flux. They articulated global opinion on fundamental linkages between gender issues and development process.
This paper is based on the premise that societies are affected by the role women play in the contemporary society that seeks to achieve sustainable development. Such development, however, can only be achieved through the process of change and the role played by "sustainable development" in creating mechanisms conducive to the desired human change, including empowerment. Development literature confirms that the success, programs and policies of development, ensuring its sustainability, its impact on the society, and adopting a positive approach towards it, are closely linked to the extent of participation of the individuals. Women represent a crucial element in the process of achieving sustainable development.
The participation of women in development faces many challenges, some are internal and women-
specific, others are external and linked to the society structure, organizations and culture. Those
factors have prompted the entire world to pay attention to the issue of the empowerment of women
and its integration in sustainable development.
Many sociologists agree that “women and development” does not represent a problematic
issue, and cannot be solved by gender equality, for it requires also the elimination of all forms and
manifestations of discrimination.
Some scholars also agree that three social trends have emerged in dealing with the integration of
women in sustainable development since the end of the Twentieth Century to preserve the structure
and functions of the family in particular and society in general.
The first trend is the model of sustained human development that aims at empowering all members
of the society and maximize their capacities building through education, training and creation
job opportunities.
The second trend focuses on the Globalization Phenomenon as an integral process with economic,
technological, social and cultural overlapping and interdependent dimensions. In this context, globalization include two dimensions, namely technical and intellectual-ideological.
The third trend is linked to the empowerment of women, a concept that has been promoted by a
number of third world intellectual women from the development alternatives with woman for
New Era (DAWN) group, which seeks to enhance women's participation for a new era. Advocates
of such trend stress that the community dimensions inherent in the social, cultural, economic, and
political factors that oppress and exploit women, are associated with local, regional and
international factors that consolidate the perception of women inferiority and their inability to
actively participate in development.
As a result, a global trend has emerged in order to enable women to exercise their social and
political rights and enjoy their fair share of the material and non- material wealth of the society. Such global approach has transformed women's agenda into one of the most significant movements of the global system, and not only at the society level. Thus, and in addition to the quantitative
economic criteria, the concept of development has also included social standards of values, such as
the measure of the level of public freedoms, the extent of political participation, and access to
decision-making.
The interrelation between women and development has also different dimensions, some are
quantitative, others are qualitative or institutional. Women are affected by the quality of the entire
social services provided to them. International programs of action have therefore embarked on
developing multiple strategies for action that have been originally designed to remove obstacles
that impede achieving justice and equality in the areas of legislation, education, employment and
health. Those strategies have evolved as a result of formulating the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) that promote the role of women in society.
The Concept of Human Development
The concept of human development has gained interest and started to spread since the 90s when
the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) adopted that concept in a specific sense that
focuses on the role of the individuals in development. That notion is based on the fact that
individuals are the wealth of nations, and that human development is "the process that leads to the
expansion of choices for the individuals, the rejection of discrimination against them, and the
integration of physical and moral aspects, and that are based on active participation in the society."
Human development aims at improving the quality of life of individuals and is thus based on three
Basic principles :
First: a strong belief in the ability of man and the society to make and produce development that
constitutes the real environment necessary to generate a renaissance.
Second: producing the desired development and generating renaissance require meeting a host of
conditions such as knowledge, sciences, skills, techniques, modern management and effective
institutions. It requires also enacting appropriate legislations and regulations and creating the
motivation for and values of achievement.
Third: reform and development are major mechanisms to ensure meeting the requirements of
individual, society, self- and objective development, and the sustainability of development.
Development involves providing the necessary mechanisms, methods and means for everyone to
have equal and fair opportunities to establish a better society that would achieve equitable
distribution of resources and wealth among different communities at the society, and they
constitute of four elements:
- Productivity: the creation of the right conditions to increase the productivity of the society.
- Social justice: equality of individuals in having access to the same opportunities.
- Sustainability: ensuring that current generations do not deplete resources at the expense of the right of future generations.
- Empowerment: providing various cultural, physical and educational means and capacity-building to enable members of the society to actively participate in the decision-making and control of resources available in the community.
Human development can therefore be pursued at both individual and society levels.
- At the individual level: by empowering the individuals and satisfying their needs in various stages of their life, modernizing and developing their capacities and abilities, and providing them with material and immaterial capabilities.
- At the society level: in order to achieve satisfaction and development at the individual level it is necessary to have effective mechanisms and institutions capable of mobilizing, investing in and ensuring the development of local resources, while enjoying the ability to cope with global changes to help the society mobilize its capacities, use its energies and realize its aspirations. Development will therefore be achieved only through a comprehensive process of change based on
individual and society -based data. The process of the empowerment of women would thus become fundamental in maintaining the society structure and its sustainability.
On the Concept of Empowerment
The concept of the empowerment of women is relatively modern. It has no specified or agreed upon definition. It is possible however to identify the constituent elements of its content as follows:
• strengthening the woman's sense of herself and her relevance;
• the right of women to have access to opportunities, resources and services, including education, health and employment;
• the women’s right to control her own life relying on her own capabilities and potential at home and outside;
• providing women with alternatives and options and guaranteeing their rights to decide on them in a fully free and independent manner;
• supporting women’s capabilities in order for them to become a major factor affecting the direction of social change with a view to creating a just socio-economic system at the national and international levels.
Empowerment is also known to some people as "the use of human capacities in production, or the active participation in cultural, social, political and economic activities." It is also known as "the continuous capability of making informative decisions based on a range of available options that would lead to developing a strategy to improve the living conditions of women, their families and societies". Empowerment in the educational field would thus provide women with an effective knowledge-based preparation that is in line with the global developments in the information revolution, training , and eliminating alphabet and capacity illiteracy. Empowerment in the health field is achieved by preserving woman’s health and raising health education level among women in particular. Empowerment in the legislative field involves increasing the woman’s awareness of the laws and legislation that directly affect her such as the laws on family and employment, and supporting her rights as endorsed in the divine laws and national constitutions. The same applies to empowerment in the political field that involves supporting the woman’s position in decision-making and enhancing her active participation in various leadership areas. Empowerment in the economic field involves energizing her participation in the professional and productive areas and encouraging and providing her with investment opportunities, while raising her awareness of the importance of consumption efficiency and promoting a culture of savings, and increasing her share in the work force and the settlement of employment. Empowerment in the social field provides support for family stability and protection and underlining women’s role in socialization, while strengthening their social participation in the non-governmental sector and various civil society institutions. Thus all the definitions of empowerment agree on defining it as a process that involves self-reliance, awareness and the ability for decision-making.
Scholars note that, during the 1976-1985 Decade for Women, the United Nations developed multiple programs for the advancement of women through the process of empowerment. When the term empowerment is used, we mean that “power” is the focal point in the process. Therefore, building such power means that the empowerment of women is the key factor in developing and sustaining change and development in the society. Based on that, power building goes beyond the traditional concept associated with the means of production to involve controlling intellectual resources like knowledge, information and the ability to put forward and use new ideas, i.e. capacity-building, which in turn reinforces role of women in the society.
Harboring a firm desire for change is at the heart of the empowerment process, for women must be receptive for change and the society must provide the foundations and requirements for such a change. Thus, the work mechanisms of the society institutions should be in harmony with the process of empowerment, which could be achieved through two mechanisms:
The first mechanism is “participation”: a concept that implies that all the parties or the relevant stakeholders embark together on an enterprise, from inception to completion. They start by identifying the problem and move to planning, follow-up and finally to evaluation, which represents one indicator for the empowerment of women. In fact, women have been sidelined or excluded from decision-making bodies and policy formulation for decades, and that has been one of the reasons of the widening gender gap in the society. Thus, women’s role and issues remained confined to what was qualified as " private", while "public" is considered the prerogative of men. Such separation affects their respective roles in society, and consequently household matters and taking care of children, the elderly and patients has become the prerogative of women, while political, economic and intellectual activities are men’s turf. It has also impacted the career status of women, and resulted in an intellectual, economic, political, defense productive work for males, and non-productive functions and occupations for females. Development also fell victim of such discrimination, since women’s needs have not been taken into account in the formulation of development plans and development planning have not benefited from women’s experiences, capabilities and capacities. The second mechanism is “experience sharing”, a necessary process for empowerment, for it is related to awareness, training, self-reliance and capacity-building.
In Qatar integrating women into development process is considered a national priority. The Supreme Council of Family Affairs (SCFA), which was established in 1998, under the leadership of HH Sheikh Mozah Bint Nasser Almisnad, The consort of HH The Emir, the Women Affairs Committee with collaboration with UNIFEM set up a National Strategy for Women Advancement in Qatar. The strategy was designed to strengthen the participation of Qatari women in the national development process, through mainstreaming gender into national planning and policy-making.
The objectives of the strategy are to promote the advancement of women, through the formulation and implementation of a national strategy and plan of action.
Women’s Affair Committee(1998-2009) was the steering committee for the project. The strategy emphasizes that women share common concerns that can be addressed only by working together and in partnership with men towards the common goals of gender equality. Therefore, this strategy required a strong commitment from both government and civil society.
The strategy consists of eight main areas of concern detailing the status of women in each of the areas identified. Each of the areas is an action plan in itself having objectives and mechanism for implementation. The eight main areas included in the strategy are:
women and society
women and economy
women and health
women and legislation
women and the environment
women and politics
women and media
In addition to the general overview of the eight sectors strategic objectives were also identified including working towards changing and enhancing the current status of women in future, enhancing women’s participation in decision making, working on changing the cultural norms that prevent women from effectively participating in the society and enhancing the importance of the Arab and Islamic values that stress the complementary of both men and women roles in building progressive advanced society.
The second part of the strategy consists of a national plan reflecting the mechanisms for implementation, the objectives and agencies to take the lead in each of the areas of concern.
Women and education:
Education is a human right, and essential tool for enhancing the goals of the millennium, equality and development. In Qatar a non-discriminatory education benefits both girls and boys. Investing in formal education and training for girls and women is one of the best means of achieving sustainable development and economic growth. In primary, middle and secondary levels girls have equal access as boys do. Figures in 2007/2008 indicate that there is 10545 female student at the primary level , 5371at middle level and 6545 at secondary level , the total figure of female students at public schools reached 22461 student , while 16656 male students at the same period (6)The girls enrollment at primary level reached %93.2, at middle level %81.2, while %80.4 at secondary level. At higher education level the number of females at University of Qatar at 2007/2008 was 6419 students and male students were only 2110 (7).On the other hand there were 59 female at graduate level and 47 male at 2007/2008. The female graduates at Qatar consist %55.7 of the total graduates.
Women and Economy:
Social barriers to women’s work are affected by development and social change .The economic changes and education development in Qatar has raised the level of women’s participation in the economy.
Women’s attitudes towards assuming new active productive roles is changing too and gradually, particularly among middle class and progressive families , leading to a more strongly articulated demands for gender equality. Men’s attitudes toward gender are changing positively. Most of the new generation is tending to marry a wife with bachelor degree and a permanent job .
The labor force in Qatar according to 2009 census is 1265432person , the economically active females is only 125798 (8) economically active Qatari labor force is 72288, the employed is 1261471 , among those employed only 25402 Qatari female , which %10 of the labor force.Women’s participation in labor force increased in the last decade. Women participation in economic activities reached %36 of the total economic active population .Data indicates that women occupy scientific and technical jobs is higher than men at the same category , there is 124892 women in comparison to 6220 men. Data also indicates that women labor force in mixed and private sectors is still low in comparison to those working at the government sector. The figures indicate that there is around 2225 Qatari female at the mixed and private sectors, while there are around 7162 Qatari males at the same period (9). The low percentage of labor participation of women puts Qatar with less developed countries.
Most women are working in fields of education, health and social services, the traditional stereotype jobs. The lack of women in professional careers is but a gender inequality in job opportunities between sexes, there are more jobs for men than for women.
New work fields are opened recently to women, such as running small businesses, real estate, lawyers ,and the most interesting field is the merging stock market where women are investing largely in the market and on a daily bases.
The political status of women:
Politics in the Arab Gulf States appears to be the sole area of men. The absence of overt status does women have been a strong decision making force within the family. Politics and family appears to be separated domains in part because this is the way people present themselves to outsiders. In society that emphasizes the collective identity of the family and the tribe, family and politics cannot however, be separated on local or national level. Despite appearance women and their net works play essential political roles.
Qatar has undergone remarkable transformation in the last decade. The regime has fostered and instituted a wide –ranging process of political development. The political status of women shows a progress towards formal political rights. Article no.34 in the permanent constitution states that all citizens have equal rights, which means women are having equal rights to men; also it gives women the right to vote and to be candidates in forthcoming parliamentary election.
In 1998 an Emiri decree establishing the central municipal council gave Qatari women the right to be candidate and vote. In March 1999 Six women were of the 248 candidates in the first council election did not win any seat. One woman won a seat in the April 2003 municipal council election, making the first time women was elected by universal suffrage in a GCC state (10). One of the significant aspects of this phenomenon of the involvement of women in elections and the public-policy is the changing attitudes of the society towards women (11).
In 2003the reformer of Qatar HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa appointed a women minister for education, public prosecutor, president to the University of Qatar, dean for faculty of Islamic Law and Islamic Studies, president to the board of director of Hamad Medical Org. , and the two female members at boards of directors of Pension and Retirement Authority (2007), Aljazeera board of directors (2005 ) and the National Human Rights Committee and many other bodies.
Challenges Facing the Empowerment of Women :
Third World societies have made progress in many MDG-related areas. Such progress varies however depending on the region, the society and the goal. Some of those challenges are societal while others are human development- or globalization-related. It is not expected that all Third World societies would succeed in the eradication of hunger and poverty, especially in the Least Developed Countries, whether in Asia, Africa or Latin America, if efforts were not coordinated and resources increased. Gains in the field of education have been not translated into economic and political empowerment of women in those regions where their political and economic participation are among the lowest in the world. In addition, women's participation in political life is low in most parts of the world, which results in the exclusion of women from managing the society. Without women’s active participation and gender mainstreaming at all levels of decision-making, the goals of equality, development and peace, that constitute the foundations of family and sustainability,
empowerment cannot be achieved. Despite disparity in progress towards those goals, Third World societies face a common set of challenges that affect the women and is confined to the following aspects:
1 - Not achieving the development goals and poverty eradication, which sociologically means the reduction of socio-economic inequality. Poverty, the deterioration of housing conditions, and inadequate health services and social safety nets constitute hurdles that hinder empowerment and development, in that order. This is also reflected in the high rates of unemployment and the gender gap. Women are more vulnerable to unemployment than men. Gender inequality manifests itself in many ways including wage gap and occupational segregation. Third World societies account also for the lowest per capita GNP rates, and consequently they are faced with economic challenges to achievement MDGs, including challenges related to improving productivity, diversification of the economy, and harnessing science and technology.
2 - Non-respect for human rights and lack of democracy and good governance, which constitute a political challenge from the sociological perspective. Third World societies are plagued with weak institutions, fragile democratic processes and low level of political participation. Most of the public institutions are highly centralized, a fact that limits their ability to meet the needs of the members of the society. They also experience an overlap between the legislative, executive and judiciary, and are burdened with blocking the laws that guarantee the right of the individual to knowledge, freedom of thought, expression and opinion, by the lack of sound policies that ensure ownership of the values and institutional frameworks supportive of contemporary society, and by the weak political elite regardless their various sources of legitimacy, ideology or position vis-à-vis the government, be they loyal or opposed to it, for they are often too conservative to the point of inertia, despite the fact that their stated discourse calls for change, development and reform.
3 - Among the challenges facing the process of the empowerment of women, in particular, the absence of women from trade union activities, which has resulted in losing their private and public rights.
4 - Instability, insecurity and the high cost of wars and conflicts, in terms of loss of lives, displacement and disruption of development. This is reflected in the Arab societies of Iraq, Palestine, and other ones affected by decades-long internal conflicts, including, in Sudan, Algeria, Somalia, Sri Lanka and conflicts between India and Pakistan, and the two Koreas. Such wars and conflicts have destroyed resources and social structures and diverted budgets
towards military spending instead of earmarking them to community development, which resulted in weakening the empowerment of women and, by extension, in weakening family itself.
Vision and Mechanisms for the Empowerment of WomenThe sociological analysis of the concept of empowerment leads us to look for ways that enhance women’s contribution to sustained development through:
1 - Promoting gender equality and eliminating gender-based discrimination in the labor markets in the societies of the developing countries to support development.
2 - Developing and implementing policies aimed at eliminating the gender gap in literacy, education, training, health and digital literacy that are basic factors for enabling women to develop the skills needed to become full-fledged partners in the labor market.
3 - Establishing institutions, centers or bodies to support the participation of women in public life as a prerequisite for enabling them.
4 - Stimulating the participation of women in trade union life through education and awareness, in enacting and enforcing legislation and laws, and in the consolidation of and adherence to democratic traditions in trade union bodies.
5 - Gender mainstreaming in all public bodies by establishing qualified national mechanisms to shape women-related government policies.
6 - Establishing regional and global partnerships and integration through global alliances based on mutual responsibility and accountability, allowing rich countries to alleviate the debt burden of poor countries, conclude fair trade agreements, support efforts by developing societies to adopt appropriate development strategies, and strengthen ties with the societies of the South, with a view to empowering women by raising their education, health and economic levels.
7 - Reform and democratization at the society level, for democracy and society partnership constitute a fundamental pillar of human development, and providing support to initiatives for political reform.
8 – Legislation reform and introducing changes in laws on personal status in line with contemporary requirements.
9 - Support for initiatives aimed at strengthening planning capacity allowing the participation of women at various levels, and particularly in the area of technology.
10 - Support for women’s organizations and networks in order to examine their needs and shape decision-making and resource mobilization.
11 – Encouraging establishing alliances allowing the recognition, and respect for the independence and existence of others, as a mechanism to enhance common interests.
12 - Developing socio-economic policies aimed at achieving social justice, that would be the result of a partnership work between the public sector and the civil society and that would entrust the private sector with a bigger role in assuming social responsibility.
13 - Establishing a partnership with the civil society, stimulating the latter’s role in the human development process and encouraging the creation of effective public institutions capable of addressing the challenges of the Twenty-First Century.
Such mechanisms, in turn, require action plans that include:
(a) clear objectives that could be measured at various stages;
(b) identified resources and commitment to providing them;
(c) responsibilities for the implementation of various aspects of the action plans;
(d) laying the foundations and establishing the mechanisms for accurate monitoring and and continuous assessment of the action plan policies and programs;
(e) support gender mainstreaming in budgeting.
Conclusion
The unemployment rate for women, which is four times higher than for men, the closed doors in certain specializations, the glass ceilings in some posts, the legal provisions on tax exemption, social insurance and credit that vary between women and men, laws that limit the ability of women to work, travel, grant their nationality to their children and be active in political life, the legal, financial and social difficulties that divorced women face, and their inability to effectively exercise their rights for custody of their children, are all examples that illustrate gender discrimination and reinforce the inability to empower women, and necessarily require introducing radical changes in the socio-economic, political and legal structures that support the process of empowerment and achieve the development and sustainability
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