Emirati female engineers set role model for entrepreneurship

ABU DHABI / WAM

The UAE sets a role model for women’s empowerment across all fields, with gender equality being one of the key pillars of the UAE Vision 2021. Within this context, Emirati women provide a model to be copied for women’s economic empowerment, sparing no efforts to significantly contribute to the developmental drive, including endeavours being tirelessly made by different ministries to diversify the economy and open up fresh income streams.
Towards this end, the colossal efforts made by HH Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women’s Union, Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation and President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, to intensify women’s contributions to the economy manifest themselves in the rising rate of literacy among females, an area where the UAE stands at the forefront in comparison to all countries of the region.
“There are some areas that are not any more monopolised by men as was the case before, primarily electronic, industrial and environmental engineering where Emirati women have occupied a prestigious position across the past years and they now hold eminent positions in several leading companies across the nation,” said Engineer Salwa Saeed Al Shehhi, who holds B.A. in ElectricEngineering from the United Arab Emirates University, 2003, to the Emirates News Agency, WAM.
“Emirati women now boast the full support of our wise leadership, atop of whom come President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, thanks to whom I decided to join a field where women used to be a rare currency out of a belief in our capabilities and potential that can tap a lot of prospects to the economy and to the comprehensive developmental drive championed by the government as part of the UAE Vision and its National Agenda.”
“The ultimate motive behind my joining this field is my feeling of responsibility and conviction that we as women have to shoulder a significant role in fulfilling the vision of our leadership in the construction of our beloved homeland and rendering it among the best nations in the world,” she enthused.
Al Shehhi boasts now around 13 years of experience in administrative and field posts and she currently represents the Regulation and Supervision Bureau in many committees concerned with the follow-up of the performance of electricity companies and the criteria and standards governing power generation sustainability.