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Women, Leadership, and a Week-Long Trip to Dubai

79 JFK AND BEYOND l It’s a perfect example of how actions speak louder than words.

In March, nine Kennedy School students and two administrators flew across the world to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a flat country of sand dunes and desert that borders Saudi Arabia and Oman, to present their research at the country’s first-ever women’s leadership conference for students. The conference, hosted and sponsored by Zayed University, an all-women’s school named after the country’s late president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, a supporter of women’s rights, was a chance for many to see the Middle East for the first time, to hear top-notch female speakers like former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell, and to share their work with nearly 1,000 other students from 40 countries.

Before leaving Cambridge, they read the conference literature. Phrases like “opportunity of a lifetime” and “women are assuming their rightful place as leaders in society” told them that Zayed University, with the financial help of the UAE government, was being supportive of women.

But they had no idea, until they got there, just how supportive the university and the government really were.

“The conference was top notch. For all of us to be treated with such respect, it was symbolic of the fact that we deserve to be leaders,” says Fiona Greig, a Kennedy School Phd student who presented a paper on gender and trust that is based on her dissertation research.

“A lot of time and resources were invested in order to ensure that the conference was worthwhile,” says Sarah Roma MPP 2005, whose paper focused on leadership development. “This sent an important message to women and girls at the conference and in the UAE that the development of women’s leadership is important enough to warrant this much effort.”

Effort was also invested by the students here in Cambridge. Because the trip was not officially sponsored by the Kennedy School and was not connected to any one class or program (Professor Dutch Leonard had heard about it and passed along the information to Helaine Daniels, director of the MPP program), they had to individually solicit funds to cover air fare (the UAE conference sponsors covered their hotel and registration fees). In the end, the Women and Public Policy Program and the Gevernance Initiative in the Middle East pulled through, and some students got funding from their undergraduate institutions. Daniels, who set up a recruitment table at the conference, was funded by the Degree Programs Office.

Theresa Lund, a research coordinator at the Women and Public Policy Program, said the idea of attending the conference was particularly intriguing because the UAE, formed in the early 1970s, is considered one of the more progressive countries in the Middle East, filled with modern infrastructure, a free economy, and new ideas.

“This conference is a turning point for women in the UAE,” she says. “The country is so young. This generation of women is poised and eager to make a difference in society.”

Examples of this were evident everywhere at the conference, especially during less formal moments — after discussions and while eating dinner, for example.

“After my presentation on balancing work and family, I had an audience member from Saudi Arabia question why I hadn’t discussed her nation’s progressive policies in that area,” says Claire Sanford MPP 2006. “There I was, an American with only second-hand evidence about Saudi Arabia’s treatment of women, usually negative, being scolded by a smart, spunky female small business owner for not mentioning her country’s policies, which were indeed more progressive than ours.”

Shattering stereotypes turned out to be an important lesson for all of the Kennedy School attendees, especially when it came to understanding the women who were fully veiled with only their eyes showing.

“The biggest thing I got out of it, besides the experience of presenting my paper to an audience, was the cultural exchange,” says Greig. “I had never interacted personally with women from the Middle East, especially women wearing the full abaya. Before, under the veil, they were just a black box to me. The press portrays them as oppressed, with no voice. I got to spend a week chatting with them over dinner and learning about their lives.
I got to interact with future women leaders from the Middle East. Being exposed to their ideas was the coolest part for me. It dispelled misconceptions that I had.”

To learn more about the conference and the one planned for next year.

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Errata: The print version of Update incorrecty stated Dubai as the capital. Abu Dhabi is the capital.