Dialogue session entitled "Women shape culture and capital" Within Abu Dhabi Financial Week
ABU DHABI, 10 December / WAM / Sheikha Dr. Shamma bint Mohammed bin Khalid Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalid Al Nahyan Cultural and Educational Institutions, praised the approach followed by Abu Dhabi in building a balanced economy, combining strength and softness, vision and sustainability, stressing that modern leadership is measured by its ability to contain, not control, and to have a profound impact, not just increase numbers.
She said during a dialogue session entitled “Women Shape Culture and Capital” organized yesterday, within the framework of the activities of Abu Dhabi Financial Week (ADFW), that women in multicultural work environments play a pivotal role in interpreting different contexts and transforming differences into creative energy, describing women as “engineers of reorganizing chaos.”
The event aimed to explore the rising role of inclusive growth and cultural capital in reshaping the global financial landscape, and how Abu Dhabi is leading this transformation in the region through a long-term economic and humanitarian vision.
Sheikha Dr. Shamma bint Mohammed bin Khalid Al Nahyan added that the value of capital is determined by who holds it and how to direct it, considering that the term “women’s empowerment” no longer reflects the modern economic reality, and that women today do not need a seat at the table, because they have become “the table on which the new economy is built.”
She explained that the old financial system, based on intense competition and unilateral decisions, is no longer able to keep pace with the complexity of the world, and that the modern economy needs more comprehensive and flexible systems, represented by female leadership, noting that the financial system today needs “female intelligence in order to survive.”
She showed that the world today lives in the era of the economy of meaning and cultural capital. Money is no longer just a tool for profit, but rather a carrier of identity, value, and society. She emphasized that women have a unique ability to integrate material and cultural capital, and to link strategy and emotion, and between analysis and “intuition,” considering that intuition, which is often attributed to female leaders, is “the highest level of data processing,” an area that artificial intelligence cannot reach.
She pointed out that emotional intelligence has today become “the currency that does not lose its value in the face of artificial intelligence,” because the robot can calculate risks but cannot sense them, and it can manage a portfolio but cannot manage relationships.
She stressed that women in Abu Dhabi today have the pen, paper, support and will to write the future of the economy, and that their role is not based on competition, but rather on completing the economic picture that has been incomplete for centuries. The growth that Abu Dhabi seeks is an upward vertical growth that requires flexibility that only those who know how to be a mother and a leader, a warrior and a negotiator, and a dreamer and an implementer have at the same time.
Sheikha Dr. Shamma bint Mohammed bin Khalid Al Nahyan concluded her speech by saying, “Capital is neutral, but the value of money is determined by who holds it,” adding: “When a man holds money, he often builds a tower, and when a woman holds money, she often builds a bridge. Today we need bridges that connect the world’s vocabulary, and in Abu Dhabi, and in this divided world, we need bridges that connect towers.”
An elite group of women leaders participated in the dialogue session: Aisha Al Mansouri, Caroline Finney from PFI, and Dr. Vicki Walia, and the dialogue was moderated by Emira Scurro from PGIM.
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