Ambassador Mervat Tallawy speech during ‘’ Women empowerment in the banking and finance sector’’ forum

3/6/2017

Ambassador Mervat Tallawy has made a speech during ‘’ Women empowerment in the banking and finance sector’’ forum held in Beirut in 3rd of March 2017. The forum was held under the auspices of his highness Mr. Jan Augustine the minister of women affairs in Lebanon.
In her speech she noted that the economic empowerment of women means providing her with the ability to control her life and enable her to make decisions concerning her life and family, this empowerment is not limited to entry to labour market but related to other issues such as rules governing her entrance, type of labour, and legal frame regulating her work, level of protection provided, ability to own and control her own assets and level of gender equality in rights and duties,….etc.
In the field of women make it to the high positions, it’s yet notoriously hard for women to make it to the highest post in large corporations. In fact, the number of female CEOs in the middle east is not more than 13% and decreases to 7% in the head of board positions due to cultural constraints though recent research has shown companies with more female leaders are more profitable
‘’The presence of women in the free market remains less than their menfolk due to social and cultural constraints and lack of required support in the form of suitable loans, due to and protective policies.’’ She added.
She assured that women represent more than half government sector in many Arab countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Bahrain due to flexible rules convenient to women and their social responsibilities.
She did not only mention investing in women citizen but also expressed her sincere sympathy with Arab displaced and refugee women undergoing severe humanitarian conditions. She also deeply thanked the government and people of Lebanon for implementing the system of     the refugee from a burden on the state to an active producer helpful to himself and to his society hosting him, since Lebanon is hosting an enormous number of Syrian refugees consisting around quarter of its population and share their limited resources.
She also addressed  the world presented  the SDGs agenda as a frame work for international work until 2030 and how AWO has paid great attention to enhance interlinkage between woman and sustainable development. In this regard AWO has held a conference Nov 2016 were 24 papers were presented  to discuss different dimensions relating women to development and set indicators to ensure  her active presence  to implement sustainable development.
At the end of her speech she called for activating women potentials and transforms her role from society’s greatest victim to an active key player in facing challenges.