A managerial critique of political parties and women’s parliamentary representation in Lebanon.

Abstract

Nowadays, women that have made it to management roles or high political positions work hard every day to prove they are worthy of their positions and to eliminate any doubt related to their performance or their ability to withstand tough times and stressful work environments. In Lebanon, almost only 3.1percent of the elected parliament members are female in comparison to over 20percent rates in Arab countries like United Arab Emirates and Morocco (World Bank, 2018). And the reasons behind this low women representation rate are many. This paper applies a managerial critique to political parties in Lebanon. It seeks to understand the different viewpoints of female representatives and that of male as well, and to identify what are the criteria that political parties have set in Lebanon, in order to be nominated by one. It also aims to know what are the challenges that women face in the Lebanese political field, and how can we reform the candidates’ selection processes in political parties to select more women as their representatives.