(IPS) feature

When she graduated five years ago with a social sciences degree from the University of Sharjah, Shadiah Abdullah was ecstatic.

Believing her education made her well-equipped to join the United Arab Emirates workforce, Shadiah thought it would only be a matter of time before she would be independent.

She would then prove to the outside world that being a Muslim woman was not, as she puts it now, a ''social and economic disadvantage''.

Within weeks of her graduation ceremony, however, her family began pressuring her to get married. ''Once you are wedded, you are free to do whatever you want,'' her relatives said.

It was not difficult to convince Shadiah to put off her plans for a career. Like many young UAE women, she looked forward to getting married someday. Shadiah reasoned that the sooner it was, the better.

After their wedding, she and her husband also agreed that home and family came first, and that she would work only after the children were old enough to start school.

But what seemed then like a sure step up has pushed Shadiah downhill to despair. Now ready to enter the labour market, Shadiah is getting only a 'no vacancy' response from the companies she has approached. She fumes, ''What did I spend all those years in the university for?''

Many other UAE women graduates who had married before seeking work are asking the same question.

Indeed, while official data say that 66 percent of students opting for higher education are female, only 11 percent of the public sector workforce are women as are a mere eight percent in the private sector.

Figures also show that women make up the largest unemployed group in the country, with one out of 10 UAE females unable to find a job that matches her qualifications as against two out of 100 expatriate women.

Limited choices

Comments Dr Sara Al Sayed of Zayed University in Abu Dhabi: ''Women are qualified, but legal and social obstacles prevent them from getting jobs.''

A survey of more than 400 UAE women conducted by the National Human Resources Development and Employment Authority (Tanmia) in Aug 2000 confirms this.

Its results indicated that many women were not staying away from jobs - they were just not getting any. And of the few respondents who managed to get employed, most said they were finding it tough to continue working because of their social and family obligations.

According to a recent report, women who manage to get jobs are employed in the government sector, particularly in the civil service, state-owned banks, and state-run telecommunications and oil companies. There are also a number who work in private banks and companies owned by UAE citizens.

A fewer number of UAE women work in health-care centres and educational institutions, where expatriate women are recruited in large numbers.

Sayed explains that the existing shift system and the work environment offer limited choices, and in fact often force the women to choose between home or career.

Women get less maternity leave than what they think is necessary to plan a family, she says, which is why they wait for children to grow up enough to take care of themselves and then attempt to enter the job market.

By that time, however, it's too late, says Sayed. The women are rejected on the grounds of either not having adequate experience or for not possessing ''career-minded motivation'' because they had stayed home for several years.

Tanmia general manager Ahmad Al Sarkal agrees. He says of many UAE employers: ''They are sceptical not just of (the women's) professional calibre but also of their ability to adapt to the work environment. Women are employed only when the job cannot be done by a man.''

No one, however, seems willing to suggest that UAE women postpone marriage in favour of a career. Instead, many experts are pushing for having the country's labour practices adjusted so that women can attend to both work and family.

Third choice

For instance, Dr Eideh Al Mutlaq, consultant at the Humaid Bin Rashid Al Nuaimi Establishment for Human Development, suggests that the government amend the current labour laws to accommodate the so-called ''third choice'' - part-time jobs for women, but with all the benefits of full-time employment.

''The United Nations and its affiliated social and labour agencies have urged governments all over the world to make changes in their labour laws to help increase the number of women in the job market in a way that they do not have to jeopardise family life,'' she says.

''Long working hours, the two-shift working pattern in the majority of firms, the considerably short maternity leave - just 45 days - and the lack of day-care nurseries in work places have forced women to either seek the services of maids or stay at home till their children are old enough to manage on their own,'' adds Mutlaq.

Sociologist Sayed says that all these have a cumulative effect on the demography as well, and notes the presence of a huge expatriate labour force - which includes domestic helpers - in the country.

She recommends that the government immediately force companies and public departments having more than 10 women employees to have nurseries and day-care centres. But she clarifies, ''The cost of running these nurseries should be borne by the mothers.''

Apparently, Sayed frowns on letting the women get everything they want so easily.

She says: ''Contributions by women to the economy are vital for the economy. But like other Arab and Islamic societies, families in the UAE protect women financially and socially so much that they fail to know what their rights and don't fight for it when they are denied the same.''

Sarkal, for his part, thinks he has the perfect solution for the UAE women's dilemma, without much more action from the government. He suggests, ''Women should concentrate on the information technology sector because it provides flexible working hours. That is the key to happy homes and a prosperous UAE.''