13 million ‘missing’ women sinking Gulf economies

When you think of modern, oil-rich Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), you may picture a life of luxury. But beneath the shots of towering skyscrapers and splendid grand malls, there is a concerning reality: women are frequently missing from the economic picture.

Even though birthrates seem normal, with about 96 baby girls born for every 100 baby boys, a dramatic shift occurs in adulthood. For every 100 men in the Gulf, there are only 58 women. Qatar presents the most extreme case, with just 38 women per every 100 men.

This imbalance is caused primarily by an influx of workers from abroad. In certain Gulf states, foreign workers make up as much as 95% of the workforce, and most of these are men.

Nobel laureate and economist Amartya Sen developed the term “missing women” in 1990 to describe populations where women are demographically underrepresented. Our calculations, which use data from the World Bank on the global average gender ratio, suggest that approximately 13 million women are “missing” in total from the Gulf states.

The roots of this gender imbalance are deeply entangled in the region’s cultural traditions. Despite recent reforms, many Gulf countries still maintain guardianship laws that require women to obtain male permission for basic rights like getting married, launching certain types of business, or catching a flight.

On top of that, cultural norms often confine women to household duties, which severely limits their opportunities to get a job.

This is not to say no women manage to secure employment – 40% of working-age women in the Gulf currently have a job. However, those that are in employment often receive smaller salaries than their male colleagues, partly because