Heriot-Watt University and Aurora50 have published a report entitled the ‘GCC Board Gender Index Report 2024’, which provides a detailed analysis of the current state of women’s representation on the boards of publicly listed companies in the GCC.
The report represents the first time that a comprehensive data set has been published collating information from across the GCC.
Key findings from this report include:
- In January 2024, of the 168 companies listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) and Dubai Financial Market (DFM), 133 out of 1,231 (10.8 per cent) of board seats were held by women.
- Across the GCC (United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia), as of January 2024, women held 5.2 per cent of the 5,591 board seats in 752 publicly listed companies.
The percentage of board positions held by women at publicly listed companies across the GCC is as follows:
- UAE: 10.8 per cent (133 of 1,231 seats)
- Oman: 5.8 per cent (45 of 783 seats)
- Bahrain: 5.5 per cent (20 of 363 seats)
- Kuwait: 5.0 per cent (48 of 963 seats)
- Saudi Arabia: 2.0 per cent (36 of 1,811 seats)
- Qatar: 1.8 per cent (8 of 440 seats)
The GCC Board Gender Index Report 2024 will be updated and published annually until at least 2027 by researchers at Heriot-Watt University and Aurora50.
It is expected that other DEI research projects will be progressed in parallel.
A fully searchable database is expected to be made accessible to researchers in September 2024.
Through publishing this data each year, Heriot-Watt University and Aurora50 shared their hope to keep the spotlight on the progress made and accelerate the pace of change.
Download the full report here.