Cisco released an interesting statistic that speaks worlds of hope for the Middle East. The company says that since January, about 36% of the 1,200 newly enrolled students in its Cisco Networking Academies in Jordan have been women. The total number of participating students in Jordan has now reached 6,000. The press release also says:
“Cisco Networking Academy program is playing a very active role in bridging the digital gender gap in the Jordan. In fact, at present, almost a quarter of our 80 Cisco Certified Instructors in Jordan is female. These instructors are acting as role models for the female students and showing them how to succeed in what has always previously been perceived as a male-dominated industry,” added Nevine El Kadi, Middle East & Africa Networking Academy Program manager in Cisco.
Whenever an economy has access to large numbers of people trained in highly skilled work, it bodes well. When a good portion of those skilled workers are women, the benefits can be that much greater. Unmarried working women with high-paid jobs have expendable income to spend. The same, of course, can be said for two-income families. Perhaps most importantly (from an economic standpoint), women who obtain high-wage, high-in-demand skills are able to support their families should they find themselves in a head-of-household position.
Here’s hoping that the progress of women in Jordon leads to such concrete economic success that it becomes a model for other Middle East nations to emulate.
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