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 of 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
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