The Women Who Inspire Us

It’s no easy task to name women leaders in Lebanon. Marginalized in public spheres, in politics, in economics, in academia, we can name a few women as exceptions. Some of them will say there is no discrimination and that it’s up to women to prove themselves. Perhaps that the self-defense mechanism they use to advance in their careers despite sexism. Others know that the odds against women are often overwhelming and that we must challenge the structures that keep women out of the public life.

And so we’ve decided to go out there and find the women who inspire us. Terrific women leaders who have overcome social or familial or legal hardship to excel at what they do. We are looking for alternative forms of feminist leadership. What is leadership to you? A woman who inspires you? Someone you can identify with? Someone who built herself from scratch?

Is she a businesswoman? A filmmaker? A writer? A mother or grandmother? A professor? Your neighbor? Your friend?

We want to find 50 women leaders in Lebanon – not the ones already in the spotlight or in the mainstream but the ones people probably haven’t heard of – and we will feature them in a new book we’re publishing.

Who are the women who inspire you? Please fill in your suggestions here.