Women and Economic Power in Lebanon: The legal framework and challenges to women's economic empowerment

This paper seeks to explain why women remain marginal in the Lebanese economy. It conducts a thorough review of literature to shed light on the economic, social and legal context to identify barriers to their full participation. The paper finds that social, economic, and legal institutions stand in the way of women’s economic empowerment by perpetuating inequality between men and women on the one hand and discriminating against women on the other. The paper argues that for gender justice to occur, significant reforms will need to be enacted and implemented to address discrimination against women and reduce the gender gap for there to have a long term positive effect on women and the economy. Among the reforms recommended, the paper argues for a comprehensive national policy for women’s employment that contains positive, proactive and implementable measures to guarantee employment to women and support them to lead happy, meaningful and productive lives.