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Good practice Imported

UAE's Mandatory Female Board Seat Rule — From Public to Private Joint-Stock Companies

United Arab Emirates · Abu Dhabi · See the United Arab Emirates profile · See the Abu Dhabi profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 29% 82/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Since March 2021, UAE public joint-stock companies must have at least one female board member. Women's board seats rose 200% (47 to 141) between 2021 and 2024, and the mandate extends to private joint-stock companies from 2025.

47 -> 141
Women's board seats at PJSCs (2021-2024)
200%
Growth in women's board seats (2021-2024)

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Securities and Commodities Authority (UAE)
Period
2020-2025
Keywords
corporate governance, financial regulation, gender equality

Context

The UAE's Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) made it mandatory from 14 March 2021 for every UAE public joint-stock company (PJSC) to appoint at least one female board member.

Results

Official SCA/UAECMA data show women's board seats at UAE PJSCs rose 200% in three years, from 47 seats in 2021 to 141 seats in 2024. In 2024, the Ministry of Economy extended the requirement to private joint-stock companies, effective from January 2025.

Conclusions

The available official figures report aggregate seat counts rather than the share of women per board or per-company compliance, so the depth of representation cannot be assessed from published data alone.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Enforced via existing securities-regulator reporting infrastructure.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Mandatory since March 2021; extended to private JSCs from January 2025.
Staffing & skills
Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) regulatory staff

Conditions for success

  • binding regulatory mandate with published annual seat-count reporting

Common failure modes

  • aggregate seat counts don't reveal whether growth is concentrated in a subset of companies

Where it fits

Governance type
national government
Scale
national
Income level
high-income

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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