النهار

The Lebanese women suffer from many problems in the Lebanese labor market, displayed by many means, but caused by one root basically: the Lebanese regime, and any misdiagnosis of the real root of this problem misleads this major topic without any solution. Despite the fact that the vast majority of women are sophisticated and educated, having at least a bachelor college degree, the Lebanese labor market constitutes of only 25% of females, and unfortunately, this 25% doesn't include any majors superior jobs that possesses power but most of females work in small companies and associations that are family-based.

This issue can be explained by going deeper into the structure of the Lebanese families. The Lebanese house-holds expenditure constitutes of 68 % spent for clothing, food, transportation, housing, and education, out of which education makes 5% of the total household average expenditure. Moreover, it is realized that the unemployment rate for the Lebanese youth is 47% in 2022, while for the adults it's the half approximately, and the unemployment rates decreases as age of worker increases. Taking this into consideration, the youth has always had only 2 choices for survival, either surrender or immigration. The households always prefer to backup this plan by educating their children so they increase their opportunities of immigration. As a Lebanese youth, you either surrender to a certain political party and sell yourself for them as an ambassador, organizer, and an active member in their party in return of having a job in the Lebanese government or having contracts, bids, bonds with the government, or depositing money in banks and getting more than 14 % interest and many other facilities, or you simply immigrate and search for a job and a settlement in any foreign country. Unfortunately, Lebanon does not export anything rather than human-beings, that send back dollars and foreign currencies into the Lebanese economy which constitutes of a major part of this corrupt economy.

Due to this mere fact, and since most of women are well-educated, the Lebanese households invest so much in educating their children in order to prepare them well for immigration, and this investment goes beyond money, but the Lebanese women invest their lives and careers and sometimes cease their capabilities and ambitions, but rather serve as house-makers whom their first responsibility is fostering their children and tutoring them. This explains why the majority of educational staffs in Lebanon are of the feminine gender, since it is more preferable in the Lebanese mindsets to get tutored and educated by females.

Moreover, the Lebanese feminine labor force suffers from a structural problem which derivates directly by the Lebanese corrupt regime. This regime was so cunning and smart and was always able to hide behind, creating conspiracy theories to keep the Lebanese citizens attention away from the main problem. This regime doesn't give the Lebanese women their right to have a civil registry, but instead each Lebanese women is registered on her father's registration and then on her husband's civil record. This explain one extremist example: many Lebanese households see their daughters as products that will be transported to another household, her husband, and that she is of no main value, since any achievement that she will achieve will be recorded in her husband's credit, thus serving into depriving them from inheritance or other lawful shares. This issue can be solved by having periodic census of the Lebanese population, which will allow women to be registered on the civil record they decide. It is not a coincidence that this regime is still using the French census that was conducted in 1932., for this census conflicts with their sectarian existence. This sectarian regime does not see its citizens as people with rights, but as votes when election happens, and as sects in other periods. Having a civil state in Lebanon, as the law states, can resolve many problems, which feminist problems are part of them. In addition, upon a request of the Lebanese government, a study from the world bank deduced that the Syrian refugees’ conflict in Lebanon will create a 40% increase in the labor force, thus a 16% decrease in wages, 60-200% increase in immigration rate, 3% decrease in GDP per capita, and an increase of taxation. Those numbers were proved right from 2013 till 2022, and this is to be added to major problems that Lebanese workers suffer from, thus eliminating more the possibility of the resolving of women in labor market suffering.

Although the Lebanese government have signed the core international human rights treaties and treaty of international labor 1987, the Lebanese government created new specific laws against violence that domestic workers suffer from and against women violence, which is meaning-less since the basic treaties and laws serve the same mean, but it was a skillful play directed by this regime to create the illusion of progress. Besides, although the Lebanese law protects against domestic violence, in most cases, domestic violence is not displayed in court, thus, this law is meaningless. This violence is always justified by the abusers, since the regime in Lebanon does not see citizens as people with rights, but rather as sects, thus strengthening the mindset of papal authority.

It is not a coincidence that the Lebanese government signed the treaty of international human rights shortly after the left wing took action in France. This treaty was just a kind of protocol for it leaves many deficiencies since it has many exceptions, such as workers in agriculture, domestic workers, workers in public sector, and workers in small family productions. Another deficiency is in the treaty of international labor 1987 since the government have signed and agreed on all of its points except the second point which indicates that workers have the right to make syndicates. This also leaves us to observe the miserable condition of syndicates in Lebanon, since syndicates can be a major threat for the sectarian regime. Syndicates reallocate people from being in sects to being as workers and social levels, and that is why there isn't a party of labor in Lebanon, but parties each representing a sect, a party that is unable to take any decision since any decision will benefit one social level and disadvantage another, since a sect is a sect for all social levels, unlike labor parties, and syndicates. To initiate a syndicate, you have to give the names of all members to the government, which puts any dynamic member in danger from being fired from his job if he was an active policy influencer in a certain syndicate. Hence, demanding special laws to protect against domestic violence will continue to classify women as peripheral, and continue to vague the main problem in Lebanon since the main issue that women in labor suffer from, is the same issue that all workers in Lebanese market suffer from which is the sectarian regime.

This article states and concludes that all problems such as Syrian refugees’ crisis, retirement compensations, labor laws, domestic violence, etc are major problems that all make-up the practice of the Lebanese regime. Although that those are major problems, common Lebanese people do not have any opinion on their solution. Simply, the Lebanese citizen is not convinced that he has rights! Women in labor is not a simple issue, but an issue that is a part of a big crisis in the Lebanese labor force, which is aching from the sectarian root.