A recent Al-Fanar Media talk has discussed the slow progress for women on company boards in the Arabian Gulf. Women continue to hold only 7 percent of board positions across publicly listed companies in the Gulf Cooperation Council, according to the newly released Gulf Cooperation Council Board Gender Index Report 2026, although the report showed women have made gradual year-on-year progress.
The findings were the focus of a recent episode of Al-Fanar Media Talks, hosted by Mohammad El-Hawary, chief executive and editor-in-chief of Al-Fanar Media.
Professor Dame Heather McGregor, Provost and Vice Principal of Heriot-Watt University Dubai and one of the leading voices behind the report, discussed the issue with El-Hawary.
They looked at the latest data from the report, the structural and cultural barriers against women taking leadership roles, and the growing influence of universities, regulators, and business leaders in the region.
Heriot-Watt University, Aurora50, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Board Gender Index produced this year’s report. Aurora50 is an Abu Dhabi and Dubai based
pressure group for diversity, equality and inclusion founded in 2020 by Dubai Business Consultant Diana Wilde and Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan in 2020. The report is the only comprehensive index tracking women’s representation across all publicly listed companies in the Gulf.
The Emirates Maintain Regional Lead
The report reveals that women now hold 403 board seats across 759 publicly listed Gulf companies, compared to 390 seats in 2025. The number of women serving as board directors rose from 334 to 341 over the past year.
The United Arab Emirates continues to lead the region, with women occupying 15 percent of board seats across its stock exchanges, followed by Bahrain at 10.5 percent and Oman at 7 percent. Kuwait had 5.6 percent female representation, while Qatar stood at 3.2 percent and Saudi Arabia at 2.9 percent.
Dame Heather described the progress as encouraging but still too slow relative to women’s educational and professional achievements in the region.
“There is no supply-side problem,” she said during the webinar. “The GCC has a very good track record of educating and qualifying women.”
She argued that the challenge lies less in qualifications and more in leadership commitment
and board appointment practices.
“We need committed chairmen,” she said, calling on company leaders across the region to actively consider appointing more women to boards and leadership committees.
Regulation and Targets Matter
Dame Heather pointed to the Emirates’ experience as evidence that policy interventions can accelerate change. The Emirates increased women’s participation on boards from 3.5 percent in 2020 to 15 percent in 2026 following regulatory reforms requiring listed companies to include female board members.
“So, if we want the same level of change in other parts of the GCC, maybe we also need some legislation or at least some targets.”
Dame Heather said measurable targets and consistent public reporting could play a similar role even without formal quotas.
The report also compared the Gulf’s performance with Asian countries like Malaysia, Singapore, India, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. Malaysia currently leads the comparison group, with women accounting for 27.3 percent of board directors, while the Gulf’s average stands at 7.3 percent.
Beyond Symbolic Representation
Dame Heather argued that appointing women to boards should not become a symbolic exercise. “I would put a woman on the board and train her up to run a committee. That is
inclusion.”
She said women should be empowered to lead audit, risk, nomination, and governing committees rather than merely occupy board seats. The report also included analysis by sector for the first time. In the United Arab Emirates women were strongly represented in the utilities, healthcare, industrial, and the information and technology sectors, with the financial sector having the highest number of female board positions.
Universities and Leadership Pathways
The webinar further explored the connection between higher education and women’s leadership opportunities in the Gulf.
El-Hawary noted that across the region there were frequently more women than men in higher education with better academic results but this often did not translate into leadership representation. Dame Heather argued that universities must prepare students for long-term professional and leadership development as well as academically.
“I don’t think employers want people who can only pass exams. They want people who can communicate, work in teams, solve problems, and lead.”
She said it was important to measure diversity and consistently because data transparency on its own could influence policy and institutional behaviour.
“If you do not measure the things that matter the only things that will end up mattering are the things that get measured.”
Family Businesses Offer a Different Model
Dame Heather thought that family businesses across the Gulf may put women into leading roles more often than public companies.
“The whole region is built on family businesses,” she said, noting that women often have the top jobs in large family-owned enterprises.
Despite the modest pace of change the latest index found, Dame Heather was optimistic that continued transparency, public debate, and institutional engagement would gradually reshape the leadership culture across the Gulf.
“The region is moving in the right direction,” she said, “but there is still a clear opportunity to accelerate progress.”
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