Half the Population, Half the Voice? Women's Underrepresentation in Lebanese Parliament

I. A Democratic Contradiction:

Fifty-one percent of voters, yet only 6.25% of legislative representatives (1,2). These figures are shocking; what’s more shocking: historically, this is the most parliamentary female representation we have achieved. According to the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities, women constitute 51% of the total registered voters as of 2026 in Lebanon, yet the same 51% are mostly disregarded when it comes to policy-making. This underrepresentation extends far beyond the number of seats occupied in parliament, but also in the policies that are produced. Therefore, the issue isn’t just about electing more women, it is about understanding why they are underrepresented and knowing how that affects democratic governance.

II. Representation Beyond Numbers:

To start, there must be a distinction between numerical and legislative representation. Firstly, numerical representation simply reflects the number of female parliament members, reflecting only eight out of 128 seats in Lebanon (3). Numerical representation matters; however, having more women in parliament does not directly translate to having policies that protect women’s rights, as the issue itself is the patriarchal system. On the other hand, legislative representation, the representation that matters most, is almost absent in our parliament, as women’s experiences, concerns, and priorities are completely overlooked when it comes to policymaking. Having the two types of representation absent from the parliament raises questions about Lebanon’s proclaimed democracy, because how can a democracy be considered fully representative if half of its electorate is absent from the legislative process?

III. Why Are Women Underrepresented:

A. The Electoral System:

Unfortunately, in Lebanon, our sectarian electoral system remains a great barrier for many candidates, particularly for women. Because our parliamentary seats are already divided unevenly among sects, it is harder for majorities in the country to win seats, whether they are women or men. But what’s different is that a woman candidate has additional barriers she has to overcome alongside this institutional barrier. A woman candidate faces both this barrier shaped by Lebanon’s sectarian dynamics and the additional gender-based barriers. Sectarianism itself does not exclude and discriminate against women only, but it creates political structures where existing gender inequalities become harder to overcome.

B. Candidate Selection: The Invisible Barrier

Underrepresentation does not begin in elections; it begins inside the political parties that dominate parliament. Even though women constitute a significant proportion of a party’s membership, leadership positions and candidate lists remain male-dominated. Even after women are selected as candidates by a party, they are often discriminated against, especially regarding campaign funding and media attention.

Another frequently seen pattern in past elections, across multiple lists, is placing women’s candidates' names at the end of the list. This does not directly prevent them from being elected; however, it indirectly translates to hindering them from getting preferential votes. A perfect example of a party that has “pretty” numbers of women but no actual impact is the Future Movement. Even though women make up 58% of the party’s members, the Future Movement had a total of 37 candidates in the 2018 parliamentary elections of whom only four were women (1,4). Three of those four women were elected. Although this number may look appealing, it brings us back to the original issue: there were only four women candidates out of 37 total candidates in the first place. Therefore, the problem isn’t convincing voters to elect women; it is convincing political parties to nominate women. Women’s underrepresentation does not start the day of elections; it begins when electoral lists are drafted.

C. Traditional Parties vs. Reform-Oriented Movements: Where Traditional Parties Keep Failing Again.

In 2022, 15 total parties were present in our parliament, of which only four women were present as MPs. In contrast, Forces For Change alone had the same number of women representatives as all other 15 parties combined (3).

Additionally, Forces For Change had the highest number of women candidates compared to other electoral lists, with 16 representatives, while the highest number of women candidates among traditional parties was 12 on the Lebanese Forces list (3). Meanwhile, other parties like the Islamic Group and Hezbollah nominated 0 women (3). Adding to that, in traditional parties, women remain overlooked and rarely occupy leadership positions within the parties. Although women are still greatly underrepresented in the parliament, Forces For Change shifted this narrative, as it was the only list that had a notably higher success rate for women candidates than men candidates. Four out of 16 women candidates won, representing 25%, whereas nine out of 48 male candidates won, which is 18.75% (3). Although this statistic shows that there were relatively few women candidates in the first place, it is also a reflection that the citizens that vote for Forces For Change lists had primarily overcome patriarchal stereotypes, which is why women had much higher success rates.

D. Social And Cultural Barriers:

In Lebanon and the overall Arab world, the stereotype that men are better leaders than women still exists. Most continue to believe that women can’t lead because they are emotionally driven, even though this has been proven wrong time and time again. In addition, politics in general is considered a masculine field, which creates an environment where interested women feel unwelcome. Unfortunately, politics and religion remain deeply intertwined in Lebanon, and multiple religious political groups, such as Hezbollah, do not nominate women as they believe that women are forbidden from holding leadership positions. With all that being said, it is clear that if a woman wants to reach political authority and power, especially in parliament, she is held to far higher standards than male candidates, which comes in addition to the Lebanese electoral system’s consideration of sect. In one way or another, this means that currently, because women MPs are held to higher standards, they usually are more active and qualified than men MPs. This is not a matter of competition between the two genders, rather, it is a matter of standards and qualifications. Prime examples include Mrs. Paula Yaqoubian and Dr. Inaya Ezzedine. Despite coming from different political backgrounds, they share one thing: an extremely high work ethic. Statistics show that Mrs. Paula Yaqoubian is among the most active MPs in the history of Lebanon and the most active current MP (5). In terms of activity, this refers to how many proposals an MP proposes and how they follow up on them. Moreover, Dr. Inaya Ezzedine is undeniably one of the most active MPs in the history of Lebanon as a whole, working hard on passing several bills protecting women’s rights (6,7).

E. Voting Behavior:

The voting behavior in Lebanon is shaped by many aspects of our society, and it is one of the main reasons why women remain underrepresented. Starting with party loyalty, most people in Lebanon vote for their party regardless of how qualified the candidates are, because historically and even today, a good proportion of voters in Lebanon do not criticize their parties. In most cases, they follow them blindly, and since most traditional parties in Lebanon lack women on their lists or do not offer equal opportunities to women candidates compared to men, this contributes directly to this underrepresentation. The underrepresentation of women is also directly affected by the placement of women candidates' names at the end of the list, as these voters tend to give their preferential vote to the candidates at the top of the list, regardless of their qualifications.

Moving on to the second behavior: sectarian-influenced voting. As aforementioned, sectarianism and patriarchy go hand in hand in underrepresenting women, as some voters do believe that men are “better at representing their sect”. Finally, one of the most influential voting behaviors is women’s votes being taken away from them through household pressure. A good proportion of women in Lebanon, unfortunately, are forced to either not vote or are threatened by family members to vote for whoever the male in the family wants. It goes without saying that a man who abuses a woman to vote would definitely not vote for another woman.

IV. Underrepresentation in Parliament Becomes Underrepresentation in Policy:

As briefly explained in section II, legislative representation is the representation that matters most. However, legislative and numerical representation should coexist to ensure that democracy is achieved. The thing is, representation does not end on election day, but legislation starts there, so as long as women are underrepresented in the parliament, rarely do bills protecting women’s rights pass. By representation of women I refer to both women MPs and pro-feminist movements, even if they were represented by men in the parliament.

V. Policy Areas Affected:

1) Employment:

Although the public sector in Lebanon, including the armed forces, doesn’t directly pay women less than men of the same rank, equal pay shouldn’t be mistaken for equal opportunity. The deeper issue lies in representation rather than formal pay. Women remain greatly underrepresented in higher positions, where equal pay and greater power exist.

Now, are women underrepresented in higher positions because they’re underqualified? No. In Lebanon, unfortunately, qualification is not the most important factor determining whether one achieves a position, especially in the public sector. Most positions are obtained through patronage, and women usually don’t have this power. Nepotism also plays a role, although to a lesser extent. Patronage benefits men directly, because most political figures who offer patronage are men, and many of them uphold patriarchal status.

Another indirect reason for the underrepresentation of women in high-ranking public sector positions is sectarianism, because, again, public sector positions, specifically within the LAF, ISF, and GS, are divided according to uneven sectarian division, which creates an environment of favoritism towards men of a certain sect.

2) Personal Status Laws:

Political representation matters because legislation matters. A key part of reform is understanding that religion and law cannot coexist at the same time. I say ‘religion’ and not one single religion for a reason: Lebanon is a country with over 18 different religious sects (8). We cannot expect a better Lebanon if each sect maintains its own personal status laws rather than one unified law that protects everyone, especially women, as most sects perform injustice against women in marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance.

A key example of this is the cross-party unified civil law originally proposed by MP Paula Yaqoubian. The bill was signed by 9 MPs, mostly Forces for Change MPs, alongside other parties like Kataeb, Lebanese Forces, and Progressive Socialist Party (9). The proposal was said to be mandatory, not to strip people of their religion, but rather to treat everyone equally regardless of their sect. The bill was not adopted because it did not pass through the legislative process, so the bill did not get a chance to be discussed within parliament. The actual reason the bill did not pass the legislative process is that our constitution gives the authority of religious courts to interfere with civil status laws, and religious institutions saw that it would remove a core part of their legal authority. This is precisely why the bill was proposed: for religious institutions not to have legal authority anymore.

3) Nationality Law:

I’m a Lebanese woman – no less of a citizen than any Lebanese man. The matter of women passing their citizenship to their children and husbands deserves an article of its own. However, just to give you something to think about, why does a foreign woman who married a Lebanese man carry the citizenship, while the child of a Lebanese woman who is half Lebanese is considered a “foreigner”? This issue specifically is also a sectarian matter (10), which raises the question: what benefits does sectarianism ultimately provide?

VI. Conclusion:

Women’s underrepresentation is not a women’s-only issue: it is a democratic contradiction. Women’s representation goes far beyond simply increasing the number of female candidates; it requires transforming institutions, political structures, and patriarchal systems that continue to favour men as leaders. Women’s political participation and parliamentary representation are not a privilege to be granted: they are human rights and democratic necessities. If half of Lebanon’s voters remain absent from the seats that shape our laws, can our democracy be considered truly representative?

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References:

1. LCPS, Women in Lebanese Political Parties: Between Rhetoric and Practice- Abir Chebaro (2025),https://www.lcps-lebanon.org/en/articles/details/4987/article-%7C-women-in-lebanese-political-parties-between-rhetoric-and-practice

2. Directorate General of Civil Status, Ministry of Interior and Municipalities 2026 Statistical Information Data. (2026), https://www.dgcs.gov.lb/arabic/statistics-map?l=en&y=2026

3. UNDP Lebanon, 2022 Lebanese Parliamentary Elections:Key Results (2022), https://www.undp.org/lebanon/publications/2022-lebanese-parliamentary-elections-key-results

4. UNDP Lebanon, 2018 Lebanese Parliamentary Elections : Key Results (2018), https://www.undp.org/lebanon/publications/2018-lebanese-parliamentary-elections-results-figures

5. L’orient Today, Paula Yacoubian: Examining the record of the only independent MP to win a seat in 2018, (2022), https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1297561/paula-yacoubian-examining-the-record-of-the-only-independent-mp-to-win-a-seat-in-2018.html

6. L’orient Today, MP Inaya Ezzeddine (Amal/Sur) announces that the draft law on sexual harassment has passed in Parliament's Administration and Justice Committee. The bill, proposed last year, now goes to the full Parliament (2022), https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1240337/mp-inaya-ezzeddine-amal-sur-announces-that-the-draft-law-on-sexual-harassment-has-passed-in-parliaments-administration-and-justice-committee-the-bill-.html

7. The Legal Agenda, Denying Lebanese Women the Ability to Pass On Nationality (2020), https://english.legal-agenda.com/denying-lebanese-women-the-ability-to-pass-on-nationality/

8. Anera, What are the Religions of Lebanon? https://www.anera.org/what-are-the-religions-of-lebanon/

9. L’orient Today, MPs from various groups submit unified personal status draft law to Parliament (2022),https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1322062/mps-from-various-groups-submit-unified-personal-status-draft-law-to-parliament.html

10. Al Raida Journal (LAU), Lebanese Women and Discriminatory Legislation: The Case of Nationality Law- Lina Osseiran Beydoun (2006), https://alraidajournal.lau.edu.lb/images/Lebanese%20Women%20and%20Discriminatory%20Legislation%20The%20Case%20of%20Nationality%20Law.pdf

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