News updates

In its issue of today, Al Diyar shed light on the results of a study prepared by UN Women which showed an increase in the rate of unemployment (from 14.3% to 26%) among women in Lebanon by September 2020 (https://bit.ly/3mcK8sZ). On the subject, Dr. Caroline Sukkar Salibi, expert on social diversity, attributed the surge in unemployment among females as compared to their male peers, to the fact that women are more active in informal and unprotected labor which exposes them to exploitation by employers, including dismissal from work. Such sectors, Salibi explained, are not protected or regulated by an employment contract or social security. She underlined the need to measure the economic and social value of domestic work, or at least its moral value, according to international conventions which endorse the recognition of unpaid domestic work through the provision of public services and social protection policies, in addition to fostering the sharing of household responsibilities. Similarly, feminist activist, Hayat Mershad, pointed out that women, like men, boast capacities in many fields that should be used in the workplace, however, there are many hindrances that prevent them from realizing that. Many women are exposed to sexual harassment or gender discrimination at the workplace, and sometimes to arbitrary dismissal when they become pregnant. One way of enhancing the role of women in the labor market, she concluded, is through the adoption of policies that guarantee the conditions for decent work and the enactment of laws that protect them against discrimination.  (Al Diyar, November 27, 2020)
 

An Nahar newspaper highlighted today the impact of COV-19 on women, quoting BBC website to say that women bear the greatest burden in light of an unequal distribution of household care work between men and women, adding  that in  normal times, women and girls do most of the household care, but the coronavirus pandemic has dramatically increased this care burden as a result of schools shutdown, isolation of the elderly and the growing number of patients of family members, which will force women around the world to quit their jobs, especially those that cannot be done remotely, and that will have adverse effect on their participation in the workforce An Nahar reported today. In the same vain, the newspaper talked to UN Women Deputy Executive Director, Anita Bhatia who said that because of the pandemic, gains of women’s struggles over the past 25 years could go down the drain in one year, noting that during the month of September alone, some 856,000 women in the US left their jobs compared to 200,000 men. This, she explained, can be explained by the greater domestic burden falling on women which have become heavier with the pandemic. (An Nahar, November 27, 2020)