Learning from Young Women Leaders and Building Tomorrows Wonder Women - - PDF document

Learning from Young Women Leaders and Building Tomorrow’s “Wonder Women” Lina Abirafeh, PhD Director – Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World at the Lebanese American University Tomorrow, October 21, the United Nations will announce a new Ambassador for Women’s Empowerment: Wonder Woman. This new announcement will also launch a new campaign to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 5 – to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Gender equality is a stand-alone goal and a pre-condition to achieving all the other goals. As such, the goal – and its Ambassador – are critical. While the fictional feminist comic-book icon has long been a representative of strong, liberated women, this choice has been met with a great deal of criticism and is not entirely appropriate. Her overtly sexualized image not only does not resonate with young women but risks alienating them due to her Western appearance, American-flag attire, and unrealistic beauty ideals. Many groups have expressed concern over this choice – specifically that there surely must be better representatives of gender equality and women’s empowerment. I wonder why they chose a comic book character when we have so many real, human wonder women in this very room! I’m lucky to have spent my career supporting such “wonder women”. So - who am I? In my former life, I acquired 20 years of experience in working on gender issues in development and humanitarian contexts. My focus was on gender-based violence in emergency settings

• conflict, post-conflict, and natural disaster. I have worked with many UN agencies and international

NGOs in countries such as Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Haiti, Democratic Republic of the Congo, amongst others. I completed my doctoral work from the London School of Economics and published a book based on my research entitled “Gender and International Aid in Afghanistan: The Politics and Effects of Intervention”: And - I was fortunate enough to summarize all

• f this in a TEDx talk.

And since September 2015, I am the Director of the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World (IWSAW). The Institute operates under the auspices of the Lebanese American University (LAU) in Beirut, Lebanon. LAU was founded in 1835 as a school for girls. When the university became co- educational, the Institute was established to pay tribute to this history and to honor LAU's legacy of women's education. IWSAW was founded in 1973. At that time, it was the first such institute in the Arab world, and it remains the only one of its kind in Lebanon. As such, breaking the “gender mold” is a fundamental part of the Institute’s DNA. The Institute focuses on advancing women’s empowerment and gender equality through research, education, development programs, and outreach at the national, regional, and international levels. In short, IWSAW works at the intersection of academia and activism. Specifically, IWSAW work rests upon 5 key pillars:

1. EDUCATION: Establish high-quality programs of study on gender issues at the undergraduate, graduate, and mid-career levels 2. RESEARCH: Strengthen research on/by women in the Arab world at national, regional, international levels 3. DEVELOPMENT: Engage in development projects that promote gender equality and empowerment of women and girls at the national and regional levels 4. OUTREACH: Enhance outreach and partnerships to promote the work of the Institute at the national, regional, and international levels 5. LAU ENGAGEMENT: Engage LAU students, faculty, staff and integrate LAU community in work of the Institute We exist to break the gender mold! Why does the gender mold need to be broken? We all know our global reality is one of gender IN-

• equality. No country in the world has achieved full equality. The reality is that society still doesn’t allow

girls the status, opportunity, power, freedom they deserve. While there are individual barriers to young women’s leadership, what we need to address are the systemic barriers – everything from media to political representation to unequal pay. Unequal pay is still a reality nearly everywhere. Women the world over have been fighting for these rights in every country. Recent UN statistics reveal that women in labor market earn 24% LESS than men – globally. Gendered inequalities in employment mirror inequalities in all aspects of women’s lives. We still have typically “feminized” professions just as much as we have the concept of “women’s work” at

• home. So, unless we’re addressing inequalities EVERYWHERE – we will achieve equality NOWHERE.

Women are the largest emerging market in the world. We know that equality results in higher GDP. Equality ensures more productivity. More women business leaders bring better performance. More women political leaders bring more prosperity. Those are strong arguments. Which one will inspire us to take action: Productivity? Performance? Prosperity? Maybe the strongest argument of all is principle – because we know this is the right thing to do. Equality in numbers is critical – but the presence of women does not necessarily translate into power for

• women. We now use more economic arguments to advocate for equality – because we feel that this

might resonate with leaders (mostly men), politicians (mostly men), business people (mostly men). So – with these economic arguments – what is the role of the business community? And what does “business” mean for women? The vast majority of women in the region will be in smaller businesses – and in the informal labor

• market. Only few will access senior positions, the rest will need to achieve some form of financial
• security. As such, they will need vocational training, micro-lending, business planning, access to markets,

and so on. And access, overall, to transport, mobility, safety in public spaces, daycare, etc. – all of these place limits on women’s employment.

Analysis by ESCWA shows that women’s employment in MENA countries is among the lowest in the

• world. There is a paradox of high education and low employment – an inverse relationship between

education levels and employment. Further, employment and marriage are not necessarily “married”, so to speak. Men’s employment is a pre-requisite to marriage, while women’s employment often ends with

• marriage. Being married is viewed as a disadvantage in the workplace as well. And for those women who

do work – protection and benefits are lacking. To better understand this dynamic, the Institute hopes to soon begin a large research project to update its Female Labor Force in Lebanon study from 1997, in time for the 20-year anniversary. The study presents an opportunity to explore women's economic empowerment looking not only at Lebanese women (as previous study did) but expanding to include all women in Lebanon (Syrian, Palestinian, Iraqi

• plus migrant workers). The demographics have changed. Youth unemployment is increasing. The

informal labor market is expanding. We need to know what this landscape looks like if we are going to target our support better. Further, we are dealing with a region where instability is the norm. The example of Syria is a case in

• point. This crisis unfortunately shows little sign of abating. And we know that women and girls suffer the

most in such contexts, not just during the crisis but also for a long time afterwards. An end to the political crisis does not put an end to the human rights crisis. In fact, in the context of this emergency, we have seen that early marriages have increased dramatically. This is viewed as protection for girls, as well as relieving the economic burden of the family. The Institute is currently conducting a study on early marriage among the Syrian refugee population in key parts of Lebanon. After all, we have to know our reality. Beyond this, IWSAW is also producing Country Gender Profiles for each of the 22 Arab countries. These provide snapshots of different gender issues in each Arab country and serve as a starting point for further analyses and engagement. Our context is challenging. The region has many competing crises. With that as our “reality” in the region – what are we hoping to realistically achieve? And - how would an academic institute equip young women to succeed in the biz world? Firstly – education. This is an obvious answer – but one that isn’t always met with the best response. To cover more ground, the Institute provides gender-focused education programming at various levels: undergraduate, graduate, and mid-career professionals. The Institute launched a new undergraduate Minor in Gender Studies in 2016. The minor provides students with a foundation in gender issues and principles of human rights, relevant to any course of study. The Institute also oversees a Masters program in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, built on practical and theoretical applications of gender equality, human rights, and social justice along with service learning components. This program welcomed its first cohort of students in September. The Masters in particular is innovative because it is built from the understanding that gender issues are interdisciplinary by nature. As such, gender-focused courses are embedded across other departments and disciplines at the university. For instance, courses embedded in the business school are open to both business students and gender studies students. This innovative approach to gender learning allows

all students to benefit from an understanding of gender equality within a framework of human rights and social justice. This perspective is not often provided for business students – although they often need it the most. Additionally, the program is centered around an active learning and service component, which entails an internship with intent. This substantive experience is customized for students based on their skills and career aspirations. They are then able to build in the kind of professional experience they would like to have as a complement to the classroom-based research and theory. Our goal is ultimately to promote an “anti-classroom” – because the real world does NOT look like a

• classroom. Young people need hands on experience, problem solving, learning by doing. They will be

more inspired by such a learning model, and better prepared for the real world. We are witnessing a dangerous trend among youth in our region: apathy. This is coupled with a sense of entitlement without a sense of obligation. These trends are disconcerting. And yet in this conference we learned that balance also means giving back. It is this balance that we seek to promote! As one strategy, the Institute launched an animated song on gender equality – to encourage BOTH women and men to give back, and to lead – because ending inequality is literally “in your hand”. This is part of a multi-faceted effort to engage youth as champions for gender equality. “In My Hand”, Bi Ideh in Arabic, is a lighthearted approach to a challenging issue in the region in order to address issues of equality, rights, and representation. Bi Ideh sets a precedent for the region and is a powerful statement led by youth from the Arab region – at a historic time when too few positive initiatives are shared. This song - in Arabic by an Arab organization - addresses gender equality in a positive way to advance our efforts regionally - and globally - for women's rights, equality, social justice. We have a duty to foster and support the next generation of creative leaders that will have a positive social impact. How do we do that? We must reform our language. We believe we are engaging and inclusive, when we actually are expecting young women to speak our language and operate on our

• terms. We use the language of “giving women a seat at the table”, while forgetting that it is always OUR

table that we are referring to. And which seat do they get? And why only one?! As such, even our efforts to be inclusive tend to fall short. I recently returned from the 13th AWID International Forum in Brazil in September. AWID is an international feminist organization committed to achieving gender equality, sustainable development and women’s human rights. This year’s forum theme – “Feminist Futures: Building Collective Power for Rights and Justice” – fits perfectly with IWSAW’s commitment to gender equality, human rights, and social justice. The event takes place every 3-4 years and this year it brought together thousands of

• activists. This is the largest gathering of women’s rights groups worldwide. And there, movements of

young feminists occupied center stage. I learned from their techniques, their ways of organizing, their genuinely democratic decision-making. I realized that we can learn a great deal from our young women leaders. I observed that they are naturally innovative without consciously trying to be. Young women’s movements are real and grounded, in touch with grassroots issues and connected to community groups. They are embedded in

the socio-cultural context by default. These groups are also organically diverse and intersectional in the way they frame and address issues of equality, rights, and justice. They don’t see growth of their

• rganizations as a goal. Bigger is not always better – and “small-but-strong” is still effective. Young

women reach out to older and more established organizations, and work inter-generationally. They lead through participation and consensus-building, seeing a collective struggle. These groups support each

• ther and include self-care as fundamental aspects of their work. Young women’s movements are

actually staffed by those who represent the populations they serve. This sounds logical but it is revolutionary - and rare. In my experience after 20 years in the aid world, this is not always the case. And from my time in the aid world, I know that we need to promote young ARAB women’s leadership if we want to achieve sustainable development. Arab women’s voices are underrepresented in such global

• gatherings. This is our historic moment, and our time to meet this need. We need to build LOCAL

capacity to address LOCAL issues. To respond to this need, IWSAW launched a diploma program for practitioners and students in Gender in Development and Humanitarian Assistance with LAU’s Continuing Education Program (CEP) and Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) in October 2016. This practical training program is built on technical approaches to applying gender to development and humanitarian programming with three focus areas: (1) Gender in Conflict – addressing the women, peace, and security agenda (2) Integrating Gender in Development Programming and (3) Gender-based Violence Prevention and Response. We know that sustainable development isn’t just for development practitioners. The business world is starting to engage too. This conference has shown us great examples and good practice that can be replicated across the region. This is the way forward. So now what? I think of that infamous Einstein quote: “We can’t solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”! Here’s what young women leaders have taught me. We can learn from the inclusive ways they organize. We can genuinely prioritize support for girls and young

• women. This must be more than rhetoric. The recent search for a new UN Secretary General is a good
• example. The names of so many extraordinary women were put forth. Are we to believe that none were

qualified? Is this global institution calling for gender equality to be led by a man yet again?! We must therefore fight harder to ensure that our voices are heard. We can promote Arab women’s voices through many different avenues. For the Institute, our bi-annual journal Al-Raida, The Pioneer, contains 40 years of research on and by Arab women. We are currently digitizing all this research so we can share it with all. We can continue through capacity building, development projects, and life-skills education – to provide vulnerable women with the support they need to raise their own voices and expand their choices. We can ensure that Arab women’s issues have a firm place in global policy discussions, such as those on UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and women, peace and security. We recently convened regional policymakers and practitioners to address – and advance - the women, peace and security agenda in the Arab region.

Our efforts to support young women’s leadership should be intersectional – we need to look at race and class and the full range of issues if we want to overcome obstacles to women’s leadership. We need to be courageously creative – using unconventional strategies for real change. We can learn about participatory decision-making models from young women leaders. And finally – it is not only about funding opportunities for young women’s leadership but also holistic support that includes training and capacity building and mentoring and much more. Rather than “a seat at the table”, I’d like to see the tables turned. I’d like young women to organize a conference and perhaps invite us to speak – at THEIR table, on THEIR terms! THANK YOU