This year’s Emirati Women’s Day theme, “We Emerge Stronger and Better,” hits close to home for me. I think of my own mother, my sisters, my colleagues, the women I grew up watching balance a household with a career long before it was considered ordinary to do so.
There was never one version of what an Emirati woman’s life or success looked like. What has changed, generation by generation, is how much room we’ve been given to lead it on our own terms.
In the entertainment industry, we talk often about the moments that move people, the destinations they return to, and the experiences that build lasting connections with our brands. What we talk about less is who is actually building them. Increasingly, the answer is Emirati women leading from the front rather than simply being present in the room.
I don’t have to look far for examples. Across Dubai Holding Entertainment, women are leading complex operations, shaping strategy and driving performance at some of our most high-profile destinations. Their responsibilities span everything from commercial growth and guest experience to animal welfare, operational excellence and safety, demonstrating the breadth and impact of their leadership.
Different destinations, different responsibilities, but the same pattern holds: Emirati women aren’t simply represented in this business, they’re trusted to shape it.
The wider national picture tells the same story. According to data from the UAE Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation for the first half of 2026, Emirati women now make up 93.9 per cent of Emiratis working in education-related professions, 91.7 per cent in healthcare and 59.4 per cent in information technology.
Nearly 70 per cent of Emirati women in the private sector are 35 or younger, and 71.5 per cent are in skilled roles. For me, what stands out is not just the scale of that progress, but how young this generation is and how quickly Emirati women are building expertise and taking on more responsibility across the private sector.
Every Emirati woman leading today has, in some way, benefited from the ones who came before her, women who walked into industries where they hadn’t been represented and quietly proved what was possible. Those opportunities were built over generations, patiently and deliberately.
Ours is to keep expanding them for the generation coming up behind us, through mentorship, through sponsorship, and sometimes through something as simple as trusting the next Emirati woman with the room before she has to ask for it.
That, to me, is what “We Emerge Stronger and Better “really means. Yes, it’s worth pausing to recognise how far Emirati women have come. But more than that, it’s a commitment to what we build next, across our destinations, our boardrooms, and our teams.
Because when we keep investing in Emirati women at every level of our organisations, we don’t just create more opportunities for individual women. We build stronger foundations for Emirati women to thrive for generations to come.
By Al Anood Al Hashemi , Vice President of Organisational Culture and Impact, Dubai Holding Entertainment