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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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United Arab Emirates
Index
Student nurses at Abu Dhabi nursing school; the United
Arab Emirates has stressed academic and professional education.
Courtesy Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, Washington
The role of women in UAE society has gradually expanded
since
the discovery of oil. Before 1960 there were few
opportunities
for them outside the realm of home and family. The
president,
Shaykh Zayid ibn Sultan Al Nuhayyan, has acknowledged the
validity of women participating in the work force as well
as in
the home. The president's wife, Shaykha Fatima, heads the
Women's
Federation and promotes training, education, and the
advancement
of the status of women. In the early 1990s, there were
five
women's societies promoting various issues of importance
to
women, including literacy and health.
Women constituted 6.2 percent of the work force in
1988. A
study by the Administrative Development Institute found
that a
majority of female workers who are UAE citizens work under
the
Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health. In 1988
they
accounted for 82 percent of UAE national employees in
these
ministries. Since the late 1980s, women graduates have
outnumbered men by a ratio of two to one at United Arab
Emirates
University.
Data as of January 1993
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