Bahraini women are making remarkable progress on the national level, according to recent reports by several international institutions, such as the United Nations Women, the World Bank, and the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Bahrain's Supreme Council for Women (SCW) is a body concerned with Bahraini women's affairs, aiming to empower them and raise their levels of competitiveness. It also consolidates the principle of equal opportunities to ensure competitiveness, continuity of lifelong learning, and providing diverse opportunities to Bahraini women to enhance their quality of life within a framework of legislation and supporting policies.
Bahrain moved from a stage characterized by the advancement of women to advancing their reality by expanding areas of fair and equal opportunities with men, raising their levels of competitiveness and the volume of their contributions to the national economy and access to all areas of public life.
Women, Business, and the Law Index
The Women, Business, and Law 2022 report issued by the World Bank indicated that Bahrain recorded the highest progress on the Women, Business and the Law index among Arab countries during 2021-2022, scoring 65 out of 100. It advanced by 18 positions within a year, ranking the third in the Gulf region and fifth in the Arab world.
The report said Bahrain is among the countries that have witnessed a significant improvement in the final score due to the reforms introduced in the "Pay" indicator and achieved a total score after it was 25 in 2021.
The report praised Bahrain's efforts in carrying out legal measures and regulations supporting gender equality and mandating equal remuneration for work of equal value.
"Bahrain made the greatest improvement in the Pay indicator, raising its score in this area from 0 to 100 in the past two years."
Effective economic participation
Bahrain ranked first in the Gulf region and second in the Arab world in economic participation and opportunities in the 2021 annual report of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Davos on measuring the gender gap in 156 countries in the world.
It is a new qualitative achievement for the Kingdom, which moved from third to second place at the Gulf level in terms of the Total Value Index.
Bahrain was able to bridge 63.2 percent of the gender gap compared to the global average of 68 percent,
In the health field, Bahrain mended the gap by 96 percent, which is identical to the value of the global average, reflecting the advanced level achieved by Bahrain at the national and international levels.
Leading in education
The WEF report also showed that Bahrain maintained its advanced level in education by ranking first in the world in the indicators of net enrollment in secondary education and total enrollment in higher education after closing the gap.
The Kingdom closed the gap in education at a rate of 98.5 percent, which exceeded the global average of 95 percent.
The 2020 World Bank's Human Capital Index report indicates that Bahrain came among the top five countries globally regarding girls outperforming boys in learning outcomes.
Girls achieved a score of 470 in harmonized test scores, compared to the boys who achieved a score of 434. It puts Bahrain on top of Arab and Gulf countries and 48th internationally.
Mechanisms for monitoring gender balance
The Supreme Council was established over 20 years ago, and since then, Bahrain has become a hub for expertise at the regional and international levels in women's affairs and concerns.
The Council has developed several national tools for measuring indicators related to the status of women, most notably a periodic national report on gender balance and a national observatory to manage nearly 4,000 indicators to measure the competitiveness between women and men, and Bahraini women compared to women regionally and internationally.
Fruitful international partnership
Through the Supreme Council, Bahrain has succeeded in building high-level partnerships at the regional, international and global levels as an equal partner in many issues and women's affairs.
The Council launched the Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa Global Award for Women's Empowerment in partnership with UN Women.
Several regional and international partners adopted Bahrain's experience in women's advancement and the governance of equal opportunities and gender balance applications.
Furthermore, the Arab League granted the Arab Woman Medal to Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, the wife of the King and President of the SCW, in tribute for her unrelenting and influential efforts to promote the institutional momentum to empower Arab women and ensure sustainable development of Bahraini women as well as maximize their development contributions.
The Supreme Council for Women was declared the Honorary Award for Excellence in Caring for the Arab Family in 2020.
In addition, the Arab Women Committee announced Manama as the capital of Arab Women, and Bahrain's candidacy for membership in the UN Commission on the Status of Women and the Executive Board of the UN Women was approved.
