Women make up only 27% of Lebanese workforce and 55% of university students

The new president of the Lebanese League for Women in Business (LLWB), Asmahan Zein, pointed out to gender-based discrimination in the local labor market. She said the 2012 figures of the Central Administration for Statistics indicated that while women constitute 55% of university students in Lebanon, but only account for 27% of the total local workforce. Zein who was speaking to L’Orient Le Jour revealed that women are marginalized, especially that the number of those in leadership and decision making positions barely reaches 18%. She clarified that since women’s rights are widely ignored in various legislations, she has decided to act and organize seminars and training workshops for working women and women entrepreneurs in order to enhance their skills and awareness on their role in society in order to create an enabling environment for women. (L’Orient Le Jour, 8 May 2015)