Female lawyers looking for work in the Middle East, even with one of the global firms, may be in for a surprise. Only 32% of UAE companies said they planned to increase the proportion of female staff with children during 2011, in a report released by international office letting agency Regus. And internationally the proportion was not much greater; with 36% of the 10,000 companies surveyed saying they would increase numbers of female staff with children, down from 44% in the previous survey.

Of the UAE respondents, 45% said they were concerned a mother may take time off to have more children. And even though the number of  ‘family friendly’ firms appeared to be dwindling given the latest results, the UAE was considered by Regus officials to have the highest level of female participation in employment in the GCC. 59% of women were reported to have contributed to the economy; yet the proportion of participants that are employed by law firms is not known.
Commentators said that the focus should be taken off a candidate’s gender and place

back on their job skills. “If employers want to recoup their investment in women and retain them for the long term, they need to better appreciate how much turnover and job dissatisfaction can be driven by non-work factors,” said May Al-Dabbagh, director of the gender and public policy program at the Dubai School of Government.

Despite these low results one law firm, Freshfields, has attempted to persuade women that they can have a demanding career as well as a family. “In four specific cases we have allowed young mothers working in our group to have flexible working time. We know there is a lot of work to be done, but they need not be at the workplace and the partners are confident they can leave early and log-in from home to work there when needed,” said Tariq Baloch, a UAE associate with the Magic Circle firm based in Dubai.