On the occasion of Workers’ Day: Working women in Lebanon and the difficulty in juggling household responsibilities and business entrepreneurship

Al Hayat newspaper published yesterday a report on choices women are often forced to make between paid employment and business entrepreneurship.  According to the report, women prefer to be employed with jobs have fixed working hours whilst men tend to go to business entrepreneurship.  The report notes that this trend is documented and substantiated via the studies and the statistics of the Central Administration for Statistics which shows that only 15% of women are business people or self employed compared to 42% for men.
The report also relays the individual experiences of several women such as for instance Lina Ahmar, a mother of two, who refrained from realizing her dream of opening her own furniture shop and remained employed as the working hours were more suitable and allowed her to pick up her daughter from school.  Hala Saadeh, also an employee notes that there are no incentives for women to become business entrepreneurs as they are overburdened will all sorts of household responsibilities which often forces to leave their jobs even if this means less family income as they are unable to balance household work and their professional obligations.
Social researcher, Khulood Haber, notes that there are several obstacles facing women in business entrepreneurship namely the absence of a favorable environment within the family.  She adds that women who succeed in creating their own businesses are often single as married women face many problems should they want to go along that path.  On the other hand, the report also shares the experiences of women who have succeeded in such ventures and who overcame material or moral obstacles namely Lara Mehanna, an accessories designer, whose work now reaches several Arab countries.  She also runs a workshop of seven workers and is married and a mother of two children.
The report concludes by highlighting the number of interventions which seek to support women business entrepreneurs and which were launched by NGOs as well as by banks and financial institutions.  These include access to capital and technical support from financial and economic experts.  The report that the challenge for Lebanese women is not just in improving their employment status  but also in overcoming societal barriers which have limited women’s capabilities so that they are able to engage with global changes.
Source: Al-Hayat 2 May 2014