talabat UAE pledges to hire 300 female delivery drivers by end of 2021

talabat, the region’s leading food delivery and q-commerce app, has announced its pledge to hire 300 female drivers to its delivery fleet in the UAE by end of 2021 in efforts to improve gender equality and provide women with wider employment opportunities across all functions in the organisation.

As of today, talabat welcomed 14 female delivery riders across Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah to the fleet.  Women currently account for 67% of marketing roles, 43% of the sales force and 40% of management positions at talabat UAE,reflecting the great strides towards empowering women in the workplace and promoting overall gender balance.

talabat’s pledge comes as the UAE continues to spearhead equality in the region in the fields of economics, government, education and health, plus also establishing a ‘Gender Balance Council’ to offer women equal opportunities in the public sector while enhancing work environments across the nation. These efforts have led the UAE to rank as 1st in the Arab region, and 26th globally for gender equality on the UN Development Program’s Gender Inequality index.

Jérémy Doutté, Vice President UAE at talabat, believes that it is important to challenge stereotypical gender-norms, and the addition of female drivers to talabat’s fleet is an example of the diversity that the organisation is proactively encouraging.

“At talabat, we pride ourselves for being a diverse organisation that takes large steps towards gender parity, empowering women to be change-makers across our many different departments. This is in addition to breaking stereotypes in traditionally male-dominated areas and creating new opportunities, most recently by introducing women to our riders fleet in the UAE.”

He added “We have received an outpour of positive feedback when we announced our first female delivery driver. The community’s support has been truly encouraging and we believe that this is another step forward in closing gender gaps and increasing female representation at all levels. Our efforts are very much in line with the UAE’s vision for gender equality.”

talabat has its UAE and regional offices headquarter in Dubai, with female leading teams across functions, driving the business forward . Women at talabat UAE account for 40% of managerial positions, which is higher than the global benchmark of 37%. 

The pledge to hire at least one new female rider per day until end-year was announced on the back of Women’s Day as talabat celebrated its gender diversity and inclusion, forging the way for a better future, together.