The Myth of Women’s Political Empowerment within Lebanon’s Sectarian Power-Sharing System

Abstract

This article examines women’s political empowerment programs that focus on enabling women to run for office. Using the case of Lebanon, the article presents empirical insights highlighting a mismatch between what these programs offer and what women perceive to be the real challenges they face. The article makes a threefold contribution. First, it expands the critiques of women’s political empowerment to include programs focused on helping women run for elections; second, it aims at applying feminist institutionalism to ethno-nationalist power-sharing systems; and third, it highlights the intersection of formal and informal institutional challenges by bringing empirical insights from Lebanese women.