UAE to require listed firms to have at least one woman on board

The United Arab Emirates, home to Dubai and Abu Dhabi stock markets, will require at least one female director on the boards of all listed companies, the National newspaper reported, citing the market regulator.

The requirement came into force after the Securities and Commodities Authority’s meeting on Sunday, according to the report.

“We previously used to accept explanations if there wasn’t compliance, but now we are moving to make female representation compulsory,” the regulator’s chief executive officer Obaid Saif Al Zaabi was quoted as saying by the National. “So now there must be at least one female member on the board of any listed company.”

The move comes after the Gulf nation’s central bank signed a memorandum of understanding with Aurora50, a firm focused on gender-balanced boardrooms, to work toward raising the number of women on the boards of both public and private companies in the UAE.