Arab women in Trade Unions: In Lebanon, women constitute only 2% of trade union leadership || Newspapers (Arabic)

The ILO organised yesterday a regional meeting for Arab trade unions entitled: "Women and trade unions in the Arab regions: decent work through organising".  The meeting was attended by trade unions and women organisations representatives from 12 Arab countries notably Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Bahrain, Kuwait, Morocco, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Saudi Arabia.
The event was part of the ILO project entitled "building the social, economic and legal capacities of trade unions in the Arab region".
The Lebanese General Trade Union presented a paper indicating that women's participation in trade unions in Lebanon does not exceed 10% of total membership with only 2-5% of leadership positions occupied by women.
Arab women participants noted that generally discrimination against women in the Arab region still prevails particularly in the economic sector where power still lies amongst men. Furthermore, , the ILO senior technical advisor Obeid AL-Berieki indicated in an interview with As Safir newspaper that both women and men in the region suffer from lack of knowledge about union work however women seem to suffer most from this problem as, according to him, women are still bound in stereotypical gender roles.  He also added that Arab trade unions still lag behind in mainstreaming women's priorities and concerns in their agenda and he further reiterated the poor representation of women at the leadership level of these trade unions.  He finally noted that women form only 20% of the membership of trade unions in Jordan and Bahrain and that in the case of Lebanon, women are totally absent from the executive boards of some 600 trade union bodies.  
The regional director of the ILO, Nada Nashef, noted for her part that the weak representation of women in trade unions has led to the emergence of other forms of activism to support women demanding their rights.  She called for collaboration amongst women organisations and trade unions in support of the rights of working women and to help them reach leadership positions.
Source: Al-Safir, Al-Mustaqbal 5 February 2013