Women’s financial empowerment to achieve stronger economies

The president of the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL), Joseph Torbay, said that women represent more than half of the world population, yet they own only 1% of its wealth, receive just 10% of its income and occupy hardly 14% of leading world positions in both the private and public sectors. Torbey was speaking at the opening of the Women’s Empowerment in the Banking and Financial Sectors Forum in Beirut organized by the World Union of Arab Bankers (WUAB).Torbey pointed out that Arab countries fall at the bottommost global gender gap. Arab women, he said, are continuously faced with barriers that can hardly be overcome, with discriminatory laws and regulations, inadequate economic prospects, harsh working conditions and with the complete absence of a societal and institutional support to this effect. “Women in the Arab World constitute only 24% of the domestic workforce,” he lamented, drawing attention to the purpose of this forum and future forums in substantiating the full contribution of women in all economic sectors. He finally stressed the significance of women’s empowerment in building stronger economies and more stable societies. For her part, the director general of the Arab Women’s Organization, Mervat Tellawi, explained that the economic empowerment of women is not measured by their access to the labor market only, but is also related to the conditions of this access, the type of jobs, the legal framework regulating their work, as well as, the degree of protection they receive and the equality in rights and duties a par with their men partners. Similarly, the minister of state for women’s affairs, Jean Ogassapian, said that the presence of women at constitutional institutions and boards of directors is not a luxury or formality, but rather a need and requisite for those departments to enhance their performance. (Al Mustaqbal, Al Diyar, March 4, 2017)