Employment

A large majority of young Lebanese women are either already working or intend to pursue a career in the future. Twenty-seven percent of women under 25 are currently working and 60% plan to work in the future. Meanwhile, only 13% have no intention of pursuing a career.

Nevertheless, although a majority of young women say they intend to work, a minority of Lebanese women currently do so (37%).

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Pluralities of both women and men work in the trade-selling industry, followed in both cases by service-sector occupations. Here the two populations diverge: women are more likely to work in the education or health fields while men are more likely to work in manufacturing or processing (Table 3).

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Women around the world are more likely than their male counterparts to work part-time in order to balance household and family duties. Lebanon is no exception, but after taking into account men’s much greater likelihood of working, among men and women who are employed, the differences between men’s and women’s employment patterns are surprisingly small. While women are twice as likely as men to report being employed part time (12% vs. 6%), more than three quarters of working women and eight in ten working men do so on a full-time basis.  Ten percent of women and 11% of men work during their “free time”, while only 2% among either group works seasonally. Though women and men work in similar occupations and similar hours, there are important differences in how women are compensated for their work (Figure 7).

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