The economic empowerment of women is essential to the growth of any society. Providing women with the ability to participate equally in markets and the workforce is an essential part of this. However, having access to economic empowerment is also a fundamental human right. When women are empowered economically, they can gain access to decent work, have control over their own time, lives and bodies as well and gain confidence to use their voice and agency to participate in their societies in a meaningful way.
There is also strong evidence that women who are empowered economically contribute more to their families, societies and national economies. Women have been shown to invest more of their income in their children which has numerous overall benefits for both their family and the wider community in which she lives. Though despite this, globally, women still face significant barriers when it comes to receiving their rights to participate equally in the workforce as men, as much the case in the small Middle Eastern country of Lebanon.
Lebanese women in the workforce
It is currently estimated that Lebanon’s workforce is only one-fourth women and while this is greater than the average in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region of 22 percent, it is still much lower than the percentage of men who participate in the workforce. Unemployment rates are also twice as high for women as they are for men and it is estimated that only 17 percent of women are self-employed compared to 43 percent of men. Whatsmore, only four percent of companies in Lebanon have a female CEO. These factors combined with high unemployment rates and a lack of public policy initiatives to promote women in the workforce, makes finding employment opportunities for women, all the more challenging.
What is keeping women out of the workforce?
There are numerous factors that have contributed to women’s lack of participation in the workforce. Traditional gender roles and cultural expectations that women should stay in the home have played a significant role. Limited access to safe transportation, lack of affordable and quality childcare or not having access to sufficient collateral to start their own business are also contributing factors. Widespread sexual harassment in the workplace is also a significant barrier to women’s participation in the workforce.
Lebanese women driving change
Despite these challenges, Lebanese women have made significant efforts to push their way into the economic sphere. Beginning in the early 20th century, Lebanese women’s groups, influenced by various Western discourses, began to advocate for the empowerment of women, in particular women’s education, economic participation, health and political rights. Efforts were made to build girls’ schools in order to improve girls’ literacy levels and employment opportunities. Our women’s equality consultancy learned that it was after the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1953, that women in Lebanon successfully won their political rights and were first allowed to vote and run for parliament.
In more recent times, the Government of Lebanon has made some efforts to increase women’s participation in the labour force. A Women’s Economic Empowerment Action plan has been developed, for example, that has placed a particular focus on issues such as the labour market and the care economy. It also addresses initiating legal reforms and increasing women’s participation in the labour force. Specific activities are also being put in place to address the cultural barriers that limit women’s access to work.
Moving forward
However, as our women’s empowerment consultancy has researched, further efforts are needed. Girls in Lebanon still have less access to public-exam-based courses in both public and private vocational training schools and only make up 60% of the students taking part in certificate-based vocational training courses, typically of lower quality. Further interventions are also needed to break down the social and cultural barriers that limit women from choosing economic activities that they want to be engaged in and efforts must be made to curb problems such as sexual harassment that make women either too uncomfortable or just unwilling to enter into the workspace.
Further efforts should also be made to empower women who come from socio-economic backgrounds. This could include upgrading technical and vocational skills in activities such as handicrafts and agro-food production. Improving entrepreneurship skills can also ensure that girls have equal access to education as boys.
More women are also needed in leadership positions. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) within the last 15 years, only 4.7 percent of parliamentarians were women and women only held 42.3 percent of senior and middle management positions in the public sector in 2018 and 2019. All of which demonstrates the pressing need to ensure that women are more fairly represented in the workforce.
However, efforts must be made to propel women into the workforce not just because it is morally right and it is their fundamental human right but also because women have so much talent to offer. Where women are allowed to thrive, thrive they do. Whether they are surgeons, CEOs, authors, lawyers or dressmakers, women’s contributions have significant potential to raise not only the GDP of a country but to raise the living standards of everyone. The economic empowerment of women is therefore not only a human right, it is a driver for change to a better world.
