No, I Want To Do This

By Joud Tabaza

The hope for more female participation and leadership in the Arab World does not have to be 150+ years away, as studies show. It can be just a few decades afar, with just the right thrust. No, I Want To Do This aims to make a contribution towards this impetus, by encouraging young girls to take on the world, have that impulse to lead, follow their passions, and handle anything the world throws at them. First American woman in space, Sally Ride, said “Young girls need to see role models in whatever careers they may choose, just so they can picture themselves doing those jobs someday. You can’t be what you can’t see.” This book is a medium for young ambitious girls to resort to for inspiration and guidance. It provides paragons for young girls who are dreaming big to ‘see’. Each chapter is based on a personal interview with a remarkable leading female figure in the region, namely, tech entrepreneur May Habib, founder and CEO of Qordoba, Nisreen Shocair, President of Virgin Megastore MENA, H.E. Majd Shweikeh Jordanian Minister of ICT, Muna AbuSulayman media personality and businesswoman, and investment banker Loulwa Bakr. It examines the factors and points that propelled them to where they are today, external influences, and derives worthwhile advice and insights.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joud Tabaza
• Release date: Feb 3, 2016
• ISBN: 9789957591151

Joud Tabaza

Joud Tabaza is a high schooler at the Amman Baccalaureate School. She was born in Amman, Jordan on March 6th, 2000 as the eldest of three children, hence her bossy title. She’s a technophile with a soft spot for reading and writing and a ceaseless obsession with design. As it seems, she’s still in the course of finding herself. Firmly believing in the power of words, -after all we are at their mercy- Joud has resorted to writing whatever comes to mind as a form of self-expression since 6 years of age. To her, from year 3, basketball has been a leisure pursuit. She believes in the power of dark chocolate, and getting things done.

Book preview

No, I Want To Do This

Findings and inspirations for young girls from remarkable women career achievers in the Arab world

JOUD TABAZA

No, I Want To Do This

Joud Tabaza

ISBN: 978-9957-591-15-1

Copyright 2016 by Joud Tabaza

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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FOR MY PARENTS,

who are my air of sanity, my pillar of resilience, and my epitome of benevolence you revive me, everyday, and instill fresh ripples of faith within

Contents

Introduction

May Habib: The Entrepreneur

Nisreen Shocair: The Heart Manager

Muna AbuSulayman: The Curious

H.E. Majd Shweikeh: The Passionate

Loulwa Bakr: The Resilient

Conclusion: That’s Your Cue

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Bibliography

Introduction

Disparity breeds despair. Balanced is not a word that describes global leadership systems today. Gender diversity is deficient when it comes to management. Figure1 below is an info-graphic that extracts the upshot of the World Economic Forum 2014 global gender gap report, ranking countries on a score of zero to one. Evidently no region has closed this gap, but some have a longer way to go than others.

Let’s shift the focus to the MENA region, the region that obviously lingers in the figure with a scale of 0.6 out of 1.0. If one comes to examine this gender gap further into depth, it is, surprisingly, clear that when it comes to education, females outnumber males in pursuing university degrees, with a ratio of 108%. Nonetheless, 75% of Arab women remain unemployed. At the current rate of advancement, it would take the region 150 years to arrive at the global female labor force participation average today. Figure2 below compares the percentage of female university attendees to that of males in 12 Arab states.

This trend has been observed and labeled as the boomerang effect. In an article she wrote in Brookings Institution website, Maysa Jalbout, the former CEO of Queen Rania Foundation, describes it as when "young