DEWA Academy - Emirati Women's Day forum

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has employed a total of 785 female employees in the engineering and technology sector and 321 women occupy leadership positions in the government body.

Dewa’s female employees have reached 1,950 working in all its divisions and Emirati female employees constitute 83 per cent of the total female workforce at the authority, Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, managing director and CEO of Dewa announced on Wednesday.

The percentage of Emirati women at the Research and Development Centre is 50 per cent, holding postgraduate degrees in the scientific and engineering fields, said Al Tayer. He was speaking at the 8th Emirati Women’s Forum organised at the DEWA Academy in Al Hudaiba.

The forum also featured a high-level panel discussion, with the participation of a group of leading Emirati female engineers in the UAE. The session was titled ‘Emirati Women: A Unique Model of Empowerment, with the participation of Amani Al Hosani - UAE’s first female nuclear scientist, the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation; and Hessa Ali - Control System Engineer for the Hope Probe, from the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre.

On the sidelines of the event, Fatima AlJoker, legal advisor and chairperson Dewa Women’s Committee said, “Dewa has organised the 8th cycle of the forum and this event is considered a unified and incredible platform for Emirati women to share their successes and achievements.”

AlJoker said Emirati women today hold positions in fields such as space exploration, nuclear energy, and other innovative sectors. “A few years ago, this was unimaginable. It goes to show that women are capable of just about anything,” she stated.