Gender and human resource management in the Middle East

TLDR

This paper contributes to the limited management knowledge of gender and HRM policies in the Middle East, specifically Bahrain. The study assesses how Islamic values shape women's work experiences and gender/HRM policies, and recommends that organizational HRM policies explicitly address women's management training. The authors surveyed 53 women and conducted 27 semi‑structured interviews from career‑development workshops in Bahrain. Findings show that women's employment is increasingly important, yet career constraints and absent gender policies persist, highlighting the need for international HRM scholarship to integrate gender issues within the context of globalization, Islam, and HRM processes.

Abstract

This paper contributes to the limited management knowledge of gender and HRM policies in the Middle East, specifically Bahrain. This involves an assessment of how Islamic values have affected women's work experiences and also how Islam has shaped gender and HRM policies. The study is based on an assessment of 53 survey responses and 27 semi-structured interviews collated from female professionals participating in career development workshops held in Bahrain. The analysis reveals the growing importance of women's employment in the Middle East, and outlines how governments are devising national development strategies within an Islamic framework, to support women's advancement in the public sphere. The empirical data show that women experience career and development constraints on account of equal but different gender roles, and that gender or equality issues are largely absent from HRM organization policy. It is suggested that HRM policy development at the organization level should specifically address the issue of women's management training. The research suggests issues of women's rights are a key aspect of understanding the relationships of globalization, Islam and HRM processes in the Middle East and argues that there is a need for international HRM scholarship to incorporate gender issues in policy planning and development.