Against All Odds: Caroline Fattal Fakhoury, Founder, Stand For Women Caroline Fattal Fakhoury on women's economic empowerment in Lebanon and beyond.
By Tamara Pupic
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Against All Odds is an BIZ Experiences Middle East Live webinar series that features enterprising women who have risen above personal and professional challenges to develop solutions, launch businesses, and lead global initiatives that make them inspirational role models around the world.
In this edition of Against All Odds, we speak with Caroline Fattal Fakhoury, Board Member at Fattal Group, and founder of Stand For Women, a Beirut-based non-profit organization that recently launched the Marion Fund initiative -in the memory of her aunt Marion Hochar Ibrahimchah- to help more than 200 female-led SMEs affected by the 2020 Beirut blasts. "Statistics show that because of the COVID-19 crisis and the Beirut blasts, women's inclusion in the workforce, which is already at a low 23% in Lebanon, will decrease even more," Fattal Fakhoury says about launching the Marion Fund initiative. "So, for me, it was very important to keep women in business, because they have too much on their plate, and because they are very important in the fabric of the society."
She explained that the mission of Stand For Women is based on two pillars: championing women's economic empowerment and fostering sisterhood in the MENA region and beyond. "In addition to creating a network of sisterhood, I'm also advocating the allyship with men, having men support what women are doing," Fattal Fakhoury says. "I am also insisting on women supporting other women. When I started this work, I used to hear about women stabbing each other in the back, about the Queen Bee Syndrome [a situation where high-ranking women in positions of authority treat the women who work below them more critically than their male counterparts], but this is now considered old school. I don't see this anymore in my practice or among the women I meet. So, sisterhood is today something really global and it helps us all to spread our wings and make the change."
For more insights from Caroline Fattal Fakhoury, check out our video.
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