Is being a project team member a gendered job in the Government of Dubai?
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Date
2010-05
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The British University in Dubai (BUiD)
Abstract
From the beginning of life, people have been paid to work. Traditionally, men have worked in various professions and occupations and were paid for their labour. Therefore, men were the family bread-winner in which the wife used to engage in what is nowadays being expressed ‘unpaid labour’ and that includes mothering, nurturing the children and caring for them in all aspects. However, since the beginning of the era of industrialization, which is around 250 years ago, women have started to engage in professions outside of their home while still being responsible for their family matters. This has been the case to this date, to the extent that women around the world have been calling for gender equality in terms of pay, work-life balance, working abroad and leadership.
The purpose of this research is to examine the gender and work in terms of doing and undoing gender, work-life balance, leadership, working abroad, pay and how to undo gender with regard to employees working in projects in Dubai Government and to consider to what extent working as a project team member in Dubai Government is gendered. The research was conducted using in-depth interviews with 20 employees working in organizations in Dubai Government that manage their work operations using projects. The results show that most of the interviewees do not feel that working as a project team member in Dubai Government is a gendered job as they find themselves to be supported as women by the project manager and the government. In fact, it concludes that since women are physically built to be softer than men and thus different and often hold a distinctive balance of roles and responsibilities to men, therefore, they should be given the right for flexible working hours while not expecting them to work (in quantity) as much as men.
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Keywords
project team member, Government of Dubai, gender equality, leadership, project manager