Despite major progress in education over the last 70 years, gender inequality still defines Lebanon’s labor market. This blog explores why education alone isn’t enough to close the workforce gap and offers actionable insights for change.

Read on for more

 

 Lebanon’s educated women are being left behind

Despite a stable growth in academic achievements and near-equal populations between Lebanese males and females, there continues to be significant underrepresentation of women in the labor force.

This chart illustrates the distribution of Lebanese males and females over the years.

The Gender Divide in Numbers

Although Lebanon is doing well in terms of gender education equality, a large gap persists in the labor market. Since 2015, women have surpassed men in attaining tertiary education, yet their workforce participation remains quite low. The labor force participation chart displays a persistent divide as female involvement is consistently lagging behind males. In this case, the lag is not due to population differences either as they are nearly equal over time but diverge slightly in 2016 with a higher female: male ratio ever since. To further confirm this, the employment-to-population ratio pie chart shows a striking difference where men dominate the workforce by nearly 45% despite women’s growing educational attainment.

The bar chart below shows a striking gender gap in the labor force participation, despite growing educational attainment by women.

Now we see a clearer breakdown of male-to-female participation in the workforce over time, emphasizing how, despite education equality, the gender gap in employment persists.

Where do we go from here?

Lebanon has successfully achieved gender equality in education; now, it’s time to focus on ensuring women have equal opportunities in the workforce. The solution isn’t to just hire more women; Lebanon must implement more programs that prepare women for the job market and levelling the playing field between male and female professionals.

Lebanon should re-evaluate their investment in education as its spending as a percentage of the GDP has been stagnant for years, only peaking in 2011 at 2.84%.

Leveling the Playing Field

Broader systemic barriers also create an unnoticeable cause & effect cycle which needs to be addressed by various institutions to help solve this issue. Academic achievement is at the core of solving these problems where meritocracy reigns alongside equal opportunities. Workplaces need to reform by implementing gender-sensitive hiring practices, promoting transparency in pay and leadership opportunities, and crafting mentorship programs that guide female graduates into long-term careers. From a wider perspective, expanding access to affordable childcare and flexible work structures would give women a choice whether they want to work or not. Lastly, it is crucial to raise public campaigns aimed at shifting societal norms and reframe women’s economic participation as not just a gender issue, but a national growth imperative.

This graph shows the women have outpaced men in tertiary education, reinforcing the argument that education is not the issue.

Lessons from the Region

According to the World Bank, closing gender gaps in the workforce could boost the GDP of MENA countries by up to 47%. Both the United Arab Emirates and Egypt proved this to be true as their respective GDP’s rose by 12% and 34% with the contribution of women in the workforce. For Lebanon, where talent can go unnoticed due to a multitude of reasons, empowering women to fully participate in the economy is financially strategic and has been long overdue.

Translating Education into Opportunity

Lebanon has made remarkable strides in women’s access to higher education. The challenge remains in translating this educational success into tangible career opportunities. Some strong recommendations to address this problem efficiently are as follows:

1- Collaborate with NGO’s, Members of Parliament, and the private sector to design inclusive policies,

2- Build career pipelines that bridge the gap between education and employment,

3- Incorporate gender audits into hiring processes to ensure fairness and meritocracy,

4- Introduce gender-sensitive mentorship programs to guide female graduates,

5- Advocate for systemic reforms that provide women with better access to affordable childcare and flexible work-arrangements.

Our Shared Responsibility

Only through a coordinated, shared commitment can Lebanon turn educational success into economic empowerment, building a future where every citizen, regardless of gender, has the opportunity to contribute to national growth.