Named ‘Young Global Leader’ of the 2014 World Economic Forum, Dr. Leila Hoteit is a vital leader in education and human capital development work in the Middle East, and is currently partner and managing director at the consulting firm BCG located in Dubai. In this recent Ted Talk, she talks about balancing her career as an engineer and activist with being a mother of two young children, and discusses the importance of “strong Arab women not giving up and continuously pushing the boundaries.”
Here are a few snippets –
“My father had encouraged my sister and I to pursue our education even though our culture emphasized at the time that it was sons and not daughters who should be professionally motivated. I was one of very few girls of my generation who left home at 18 to study abroad. My father didn’t have a son, and so I, in a sense, became his. Fast-forward a couple of decades, and I hope I didn’t do too badly in making my father proud of his would-be son. As I got my Bachelor’s and PhD in electrical engineering, did R&D in the UK, then consulting in the Middle East, I have always been in male-dominated environments. Truth be told, I have never found a role model I could truly identify with… So Arab women of my generation have had to become our own role models.”
“Two of my biggest breaks came through the support of other women. It was the head of marketing who initially suggested I be considered as a young global leader to the World Economic Forum. She was familiar with my media engagements and my publications, and when she was asked to voice her opinion, she highlighted my name. It was a young consultant, a Saudi lady and friend, who helped me sell my first project in Saudi Arabia, a market I was finding hard to gain traction in as a woman. She introduced me to a client, and that introduction led to the first of very many projects for me in Saudi. Today, I have two senior women on my team, and I see making them successful as key to my own success. Women continue to advance in the world, not fast enough, but we’re moving.”
“The Arab world, too, is making progress, despite many recent setbacks. Just this year, the UAE appointed five new female ministers to its cabinet, for a total of eight female ministers. That’s nearly 28 percent of the cabinet, and more than many developed countries can claim… This is the result, no doubt, of great leadership, but it is also the result of strong Arab women not giving up and continuously pushing the boundaries.”
