The Annual Gender Gap Index is out and Lebanon has dropped from last year to the 135th spot (out of 142) and suffers from severe gender inequality. Moreover, Lebanon ranked really bad in terms of female political participation, given the low number of women holding public office. Lebanon is the second worst ranked country in the Arab world after Syria only in the 139th spot. Kuwait is the best ranked in 113th spot, followed by UAE (115), Bahrain (124), Egypt (129), Saudi Arabia (130) and Jordan (134).
The report is issued by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum. You can download it [Here].
Thanks Gianni!
I dont get people who talk about “female participation in parliament.” The people voted, and they didn’t chose the females. Having a quota would be ironic considering that we complain about quotas for sects. The best thing to do is having no quotas whatsoever and letting democracy play its role.
Kareem,
I am sure you are better versed on how the lists of candidates are formed in Lebanon. Could you enlighten us please? Are those created by the “ruling parties”? For example: Does the FPM, FM, LF, HA, PSP, Amal create their own lists for the election? How many non party independents run without being on a list and win?
I’m waiting to be educated on who ran and who you voted for.
Thank you for your assistance.
Thank you for your very “diplomatic” response.
Here’s my point:
Let’s say you’ve run for the elections. You’re a female. I like your agenda more than that of any other candidate, and I voted for you.
In a parallel world, let’s say that I liked a male’s agenda more than yours, but because of the quota, and despite you getting less votes, you’re elected while your male counterpart isn’t.
PLEASE try to explain to me how that’s fair?
Or take this example:
Out of 3 individuals, only 2 are chosen: 1 male and 1 female. There were 2 females running for the elections and only 1 male. The females each got more votes than the male, but tough luck – only 1 of them is chosen. Technically, a quota might even negatively impact females.
No quotas of any type (not just for gender) => everyone’s happy
Yeah I don’t think it’s about gender inequality more than the fact that few lebanese women are interested in politics or any other career for that matter because the lebanese society has always expected women to get married, have kids and be the perfect housewives. While that is slowly changing with the new generations, I still think that we are still very far away from having equally active men and women in our society.