Lebanon may witness a remarkable rise in the number of women serving in Parliament come May 2018 due to initiatives from women’s groups, “civil society” activists, and the substantial number of female candidates – 113 at the start of the election period. However, as this briefing paper shows, Lebanese women continue to face numerous challenges in entering government. The new electoral law passed in June 2017 does not provide women with equal opportunity to be elected, and it is yet to be seen whether it will increase female representation in Parliament. Nevertheless, the historic number of...
Since the unrest in Syria began in March 2011, the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon has hosted varying numbers of displaced Syrian families. Local actors such as municipalities and NGOs registered families for assistance received through regional and international donors.
On December 9, 2009, a Lebanese criminal court sentenced a Lebanese woman to 15 days in jail for repeatedly beating Jonalin Malibago, her Filipina maid, three years earlier. Lebanese newspapers hailed the case a landmark victory for the country’s estimated 200,000 migrant domestic workers (MDWs), many of whom report abuse at the hands of their employers. The case illustrated the positive role that the judiciary can play in protecting MDWs, even though the sentence was lenient given the violation. But it also raised at least one significant question: was the Malibago verdict a rare instance of...
Using time-diary data from 25 countries, the authors demonstrate that there is a negative relationship between real GDP per capita and the female-male difference in total work time per day -- the sum of work for pay and work at home.
To help expand the focus of the social protection debate to include the informal sector, particularly women workers, the ILO global programme STEP, "Strategies and Tools against Social Exclusion and Poverty" and the global network called Women in Informal Employment: Globalizi
