Women in the period before federation
Prior to the establishment of the UAE federation, and contrary to the false image held by many people outside the country, local women played and important part in society, beyond their natural roles as wives and mothers. In traditional society, women played an active role in agriculture in t he mountains as well as in the desert oases. In many families or tribes, such as the fishing and pearling communities along the coast, menfolk would often be away for weeks or even months at a time, leaving to their womenfolk the tasks not only of raising the family, but of caring for the home and its livestock. Even in the pearling industry itself, women had their own traditional and well-defined role, searching for pearls in the shallow inter-tidal areas close the coast, while the men ventured out to sea.
Behind the scenes, women also had an important role to play in the running of affairs. The mother of president His Highness Sheikh Sayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Sheikha Salama, for example, was to a very great extent responsible for the way in which her four sons worked together from the 1920s onwards until the late 1950s and early 1960s to help bring the Emirate of Abu Dhabi through the hardships of the world economic depression and the collapse of the pearling industry. Other women played an important role in business, or in the resolution of disputes between different communities. Unsung heroes, such women deserve credit for the way in which they laid the groundwork for the progress that has since followed.