| ISBN 92-2-110692-6 First published 1997 |
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| ABOUT THE AUTHOR | ||
| This chapter will seek to determine the changes in gender roles in the context of war. It is usually assumed that major conflict will provoke a certain fluidity in men's and women's roles which would ordinarily be defined within clearer boundaries in peaceful times. In addition, the chapter will examine women's involvement in public life in the military and political sphere, and their participation in non-governmental organizations. Finally, the strategies they used for survival in times of economic hardship will be discussed.
The material is drawn from existing research as well as from interviews conducted with women and NGOs. The information collected through the ILO questionnaire and interviews helped determine change in gender relations, the survival strategies and the participation in associational life of the country; however, it cannot be considered as representative, but rather as indicative of some of the issues concerning women's roles and activities.
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| 5.1 The pre- and post-war situation of women | ||
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5.1.1 The role of women In the absence of systematic research on whether and how the role of women was modified due to the conflict, the information presented here is mostly based on interviews and information drawn from the ILO questionnaire. According to the large majority of NGOs, women's associations and women informants, the role of women changed during the war as they were faced with increased responsibility and pressure. The change mainly occurred in their productive role; the economic hardship they endured led to increased involvement in both formal and informal economic activities. Because of the temporary or permanent inability of some men to fulfil their traditional responsibilities as providers for the household and due to soaring inflation, women were propelled into the labour market.Most informants agreed that the change in women's productive roles was not accompanied by a substantial modification of their condition. While some believed that there had been little or no "redefinition or redistribution of roles and responsibilities within the household", the USJ/Laval survey indicates very slight changes in the division of labour in some displaced households. However, it seemed that while women had taken on more men's tasks, they were not relieved accordingly of some of their duties. Women's contribution to the economic sufficiency of their families has led to some changes in the way they perceive their value and roles. Some women head of households expressed their pride for paying the school fees of their children and feeding the family.[40] Leyla, a young widow interviewed during fieldwork, insisted that she was financially independent in order to maintain as much autonomy and decision-making power as possible from her in-laws concerning the education of her son and her personal life. Most informants also agreed that women's contribution to the survival of her family and her involvement in humanitarian activities was often unacknowledged. The war did not seem to have "destabilized the patriarchal system in practice which means that the position of women and the perceptions of their roles have remained largely intact".[41] Some even reckoned that the war had a very negative role in stopping the evolution of ideas and the development of mentalities concerning the low status of women and the value of their work. Nevertheless, acknowledgement and validation came from other women who praised "her courage" and "self-sacrifice" and her importance in "keeping the family together" (Abu Nasr, 1992). A study by psychologist, Kheir-Badawi, underlines the "central and centripetal function" of women, especially mothers, in the midst of chaos when society was pulled in all directions. According to her, there was an inevitable regrouping of families around the nurturing woman. She was the one who represent stability in total spatial and temporal disorientation, thus establishing a regressive, fusional unit around her. This role became more prominent as the father figure withered. Traditionally a symbol of authority, the paterfamilias was less able to perform his role of protector and provider, when forced to remain at home for security reasons and often because of unemployment (1992). Thus, the war would have reinforced women's maternal role and weakened the father figure in certain cases while for others it did not undermine patriarchal authority. The redefinition of women's roles in the aftermath of war can mark a regression vis-à-vis the few opportunities the war has opened to them. The longer term impact of economic recovery, return migration and male unemployment on women's participation in the formal and informal sectors needs to be studied. On the other hand, the reinforcement of religious identities as a result of the war and the overall traditionalist climate now prevailing can undermine the gains and openings the war has allowed. Influential religious leaders attempt to push women back to narrowly defined roles.
5.1.2 Women in the war Women were completely absent from decision-making during the war as military and political actors. According to Abu Nasr (1992) "the involvement of the women of Lebanon in the laws of destruction was practically inexistent, they did not initiate the war nor encouraged it. In fact, it disregarded their existence altogether. Women had no say when the war started, neither in the decision-making process nor in the efforts to achieve reconciliation. Their roles were that of the recipient of the consequences and the outcomes of the war on one hand, and maker and manufacturer of the laws of survival on the other hand". "Lebanese women also protested war activities by sending communiqués which were all left unanswered. Peace marches organized by individuals and women's groups were shrewdly dismantled by angry war-profiteering politicians."The common view that women are peace lovers as opposed to men promoting violence needs to be challenged. Despite the fact that very few women were directly involved in military activities -- they were a small minority and had no political weight -- many women were performing war-related tasks and were providing essential support for militiamen by housing, feeding, clothing and even protecting them. A broader definition of "resistance" would include "those who hold supporting roles in housing, feeding, clothing and even protecting the combatants" (Karame, forthcoming, 1997:1). Thus women's involvement in the war through this "active resistance" was far from being negligible; yet it was never recognized. Another misunderstanding often associated with the particular structure of Lebanese society relates to its multi-confessional nature. Given the factionalism that developed in the context of the war, it is often assumed that membership into a confessional group necessarily entails allegiance to, or support of, the respective militias. Thus, women and men belonging to a faction were deemed to be supporting the conflict merely through their communal affiliations. While this is certainly true for a number of citizens, not all were ideologically committed in the war.[42] |
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| 5.2 Women's productive activities | ||
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5.2.1 Survival strategies As noted, the economic crisis had a different impact on the productive roles and survival strategies of men and women. The first reaction of households was to use their savings and reduce consumption which had a qualitative differential effect on women. Women's survival strategies in this context included selling assets such as gold and land which jeopardized their long-term financial security.Another strategy was to transform their domestic skills to marketable ones such as catering, childcare or sewing. Some catered for dinner parties or rich families, others formed self-help groups in order to market their home-made products. The majority of women, usually inexperienced and unskilled, entered the informal[43] sector to increase household income. Often, women had to take on tasks usually carried out by men and, in the worst cases, had to resort to socially unacceptable jobs such as prostitution. The number of women forced to take on jobs that are considered socially unacceptable increased. Many women had to leave their villages in order to be domestic workers in urban areas, young girls had to leave school and be employed in families. As noted later in this chapter, some women had to resort to prostitution, sometimes encouraged by their husbands as a desperate strategy for survival. For many women, especially those living in villages, work outside the home is considered demeaning. They only work because of pressing economic needs and do not like to admit it, "they usually do not like to say that they do (work) ... they are willing to be hired as househelps but outside their village" (MOA, 1994:12). On the whole, according to most NGOs, women have been very resourceful. The war forced them to revert to traditional methods in order to survive in this new environment. Water had to be filled from sources and wells, wood fire replaced central heating, "they did all of that in a predominantly patriarchal society that values men more than women" (Abu Nasr, 1992).
5.2.2 Levels and trends in the labour force participation of women The war has affected the structure and nature of women's work. According to Chamie, the protracted conflict has "diverted attention from their work or plans for upward mobility to the more immediate concerns for safety and comfort of the family" (1984:74). The unpredictable displacements of population and the political climate have affected job security. Many women were often forced to take on further responsibilities and become the primary providers for their families. For those households in which men are out of work, fighting, or have emigrated, women have responsibility for the survival of the family.
Sectoral and occupational distribution of working women Pre-war Lebanon In 1970 most working men and women were employed in the service sector. But in general the sectoral distribution between sexes is not comparable. According to Chamie, women in the seventies were in the "least prestigious occupational categories" (1984:77) of the industrial, agricultural, and service sectors. Further, occupational diversity for women was limited, which was not the case for men. Women are also limited by cultural definitions of what is acceptable work for them. Chamie notes that within the professions listed in the survey only one or two are open to women. For instance, in the nine coded liberal arts and humanities professions (Ministry of Planning 1970, in Chamie, 1984), 92 per cent were in one occupation: teaching. Moreover, in 1970, out of the 15,510 women working as teachers only a few were college professors.
In 1996 the sectoral distribution shows the following: in the 15 sectors chosen by MOSA women are mainly represented in the service sector, most often in teaching positions: 26.8 per cent are in teaching. The agricultural sector comes only in sixth position (with 4.1 per cent)[44] after commerce and maintenance (second: 14 per cent), industry (third: 13.8 per cent), health and social work (fourth: 9.8 per cent), and domestic services and janitors in fifth position (8 per cent). Women are virtually excluded from the following sectors: construction, electricity, water and gas, restaurants, hotels and international organizations. Data collected for this report indicates that the majority of women are still working in low paid, unprestigious jobs. They are virtually absent from decision-making positions, although there seems to be a slight increase of women in higher administrative jobs.
The relationship between education and female productive and reproductive activities indicates that illiteracy rates are negatively related to employment even in agriculture where illiterate women admitted having problems and being discriminated against since they could not read labels of pesticides or could not deal with measurements and so on. The survey undertaken by the Ministry of Health (MOH, 1996), shows that education and fertility are closely linked: in the 45-49 age group the number of children for each woman varies significantly in relation to their educational status. Illiterate women had 6.9 children; the women who could read and write had 5 children; those who had completed primary school had 4.8 children; or completed intermediary level: 3.8 children. Women with a secondary school level had 3.1 children and those with a university degree had 3.7 children. There is, according to the study, a strong correlation between the level of education and fertility. |
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| 5.3 Women's roles and participation in public life | ||
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5.3.1 Women and decision-making in public life In the private sphere many variables determine the level of women's power of decision, the socio-economic status, educational attainment of both man and wife, residence, and sometimes, religion. No data is available which would allow an analysis of the impact of women's economic contributions on her power of decision-making at home.[45]Women in Lebanon appear to have no authority over the decision-making process in the public arena. In rural areas, women have no say in matters related to agricultural practices, marketing, allocation of income and expenses. In addition, their "mobility is controlled to a high degree by male members of the family. Even in women-headed households, decisions are often shared with other male figures directly related to the family" (MOA, 1994). The increased participation of women in the labour force and in humanitarian activities does not appear to have affected their level of participation in the political arena. The degree of control and power in the decision-making process remains very low, this exclusion at the national and regional levels was underlined in the report of the National Committee for the Preparation of the Beijing Conference. No woman has ever occupied the position of mohafez, or governor of a province, 4.16 per cent only have been appointed as head of caza, the smaller administrative unit, three women, out of 390 posts as head of municipality, have been appointed while only two mayors out of 1,800 are women. In the parliament, since 1963, only four women were elected as deputies. Women entered Parliament in a traditional manner: they were either daughters or widows of eminent politicians. Women are totally absent from the executive, and have always been. Only the judiciary has included some women since 1972. In all areas of the public sector women do not hold high positions and are absent from decision making processes. Finally, out of 172 first-level positions in the ministries, only one position is held by a woman, representing 0.6 per cent of these positions (MOA, 1994).
5.3.2 Political parties and labour unions Prior to the war, very few women participated actively and openly in the political life of the country. Some women (in the Democratic Party for instance) were very instrumental in bringing about changes in favour of women in matters pertaining to law and human rights. They were also influential in starting a debate on the Personal Status Laws which maintain women in a subordinate position. Despite the fact that Lebanese women were highly active in organizing and providing assistance to the people during the war, they remained almost absent in the political decision-making process.The participation of women in political parties and their presence in labour unions has slightly increased during the war. However, their representation in those institutions remains very limited and marginal in terms of numbers and also regarding their involvement in policy-making and decision power. A study undertaken on the participation of women in political parties (Moghaizel, 1987),[46] indicated that there seemed to be an increase of women in those parties in the eighties, especially among women with an average age of 30. The women were mostly single and tended to disengage from political activity after marriage. Despite the parties' non-discriminatory charters, women's absence from decision-making positions was noted. In labour unions the participation of women was higher after the age of 40, and a larger proportion of married women was found. Their participation was almost equal to that of men, yet in high positions their numbers decreased significantly. In post-war Lebanon, no data are available on the presence of women in the labour movement (as anecdotal evidence, it can be noted that some union leaders interviewed in the field insisted that "numbers and figures did not matter"). Actually, even the largest confederation had no figures on the number of workers it was representing. Women who are part of unions are not representative of women qua group, but are participating on the basis of their status as workers or employees. One woman was elected as a member of the lawyers' union, another woman who was interviewed is the actual executive secretary of the Hotel Dieu Union, a very powerful union. At the regional level, the Committee of the Arab Working Women (lajnat al mar'a al aamila al arabiya) was founded in 1991 by Decree No. 16 of the International Federation of Arab Workers' Unions at it 8th meeting in Sanaa, Yemen. It is headed by a woman, now a Lebanese, who is currently employed in a bank. Up to now, teachers (who are in a large majority women) have been represented by the Lebanese Council for Women, with no specific unionist programme. The Association of Working Women, which could not form a union because of an obsolete and restrictive legislation, was set up recently with the aim of creating a female unionist force on the ground.
5.3.3 Women's associations Women's movements in Lebanon were initiated by upper-class or middle upper-class women a century ago. They were conservative and traditionalist movements and more feminine in their composition than feminist in their goals. Their activities were of a cultural and philanthropic nature. A National Council for Women was founded in 1952, grouping some 125 women's associations from all regional, ideological and confessional backgrounds.Women's associations have multiplied during the war and tried to respond to the immediate needs of the population and have limited their interventions to their respective geographic areas. They help the displaced, widows, war orphans and the disabled. The involvement of women in voluntary, humanitarian work and their commitment has been remarkable. According to Abu Nasr (1992), women "patched up the lack of adequate social and medical services by volunteering to work in social welfare organizations both national and international". They also coordinated relief for refugees and the displaced. Although advocates of women's rights occasionally put pressure on the Government for reform of Personal Status Laws, few of these associations were opened to the influence of gender-transformative ideas. In Lebanon new social configurations have emerged as a result of the war. A new organizational life seems to be forming in an attempt to fill a space left by the destruction of the social fabric and the disruption of family life. According to some of the women informants who have created an association or are heading an NGO, women in post-war Lebanon are eager to join associations which represent alternative support groups to the family and the social networks they had prior to the war. The role women played during the war as providers and workers has also encouraged them to seek activities outside the household. The need of young women for leaders who have experience and can help them carve a niche for themselves their need for a role model who could provide them with alternative projects for their lives, was underlined by the president of the Association for Working Women: "There is no longer a political life through the participation in parties, and a very limited participation in unionist life. The large majority of women members of the Association for Working Women are young, and most seem to be very lost. The family has been dispersed and family ties broken because of displacement and migration. They are in desperate need of guidance. For instance, women come running to participate in every programme the Lebanese Council for Women[47] organizes. There is such a void left by the war, that they want to fill it with these kinds of activities".[48] Many women have reorganized their social life around associations and participation in social work and benevolent aid. Some of these groupings are very "mundane" and somehow reproduce the "salon life" of the pre-war period. Others offer various forms of concrete assistance to the poor or to women in their quarters. Some have been created with a deliberate strategy and a determined purpose, others are more informal, born out of the need of certain persons to share similar experiences. Many of those associations are formed by two or three persons working on a part-time basis. These groupings are important support systems for women and provide an important escape from an environment that puts too many demands on them. The autonomy they have gained through the war has encouraged them to resist the traditionally defined roles and identities imposed on them by their families and society. These formal and informal associations should be encouraged as they can have a therapeutic function. They also help build groups based on wider references than family, and sometimes religion, thus opening some space for civil society to develop. They should be encouraged and given means to participate in the country's reconstruction (another important part of healing).
5.3.4 Women and civil society[49] The relationship between these war-related phenomena (such as the disruption of the social fabric in Lebanon due to massive population transfers and migration, paralleled with the re-enforcement of sectarian cleavages) with the development of civil society should be studied. It seems that in the gap created by the breakdown of family ties there is a potential for the development of a civil society as a base for democracy. As noted, women in post-war Lebanon are eager to form or participate in associations which represent alternative support groups.
Labour unions have not contributed directly in addressing gender concerns relating to the war, nor have they been instrumental in promoting women's participation or betterment, despite some attempts to put forward some rights for women at the employment level. However, the role they have developed during the war in articulating people's demands in the civil, political, social, and economic domains, has propelled them onto the national scene as the main representatives of social opposition and popular movements. The growing disillusion of the population with the political parties -- they closely associate to the militia rule and the war --- has also encouraged the unions, and more specifically the Confederation générale des travailleurs libanais (CGTL), to take on a new role and function. Therefore, they are addressing issues related to poverty, social inequality, civil and political rights.
An opinion poll conducted for the newspaper Al Nahar in September 1996 [50] stated that 30.17 per cent of the population wanted the labour unions and confederations to represent the opposition in the country (the highest percentage), and only 10 per cent wanted the political parties to take the lead. The age profile of those who expressed their wish to see the unions take the lead of political opposition shows that the majority was between the 21-29 age group. Another 30.5 per cent wanted to see the union leaders and the confederations representing the opposition in the Parliament. It was again the highest percentage. The main issues people wanted the opposition to raise were primarily the living conditions and the corruption in management; 56 per cent said they would participate/support direct opposition such as strikes and demonstrations; 68 per cent believed that the opposition would lead to the modification of the actual reality; 59 per cent declared to be in the opposition. The large majority of those who considered to be in the opposition belonged to the lowest socio-economic strata.
Constraints on women's participation and effective impact The main obstacle identified by the informants for the participation of women in unions was time. With the traditional division of labour women are overloaded with work and receive no help whatsoever from the husband. As was argued in the report, while women's participation in the labour market has increased, their economic contribution has not altered their traditional role within the domestic arena.
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Naila Nauphal
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