The Woman's Word: We and the Economic Crisis

The Woman's Word

Lebanon is in the grip, at this moment, of an entrenched economic crisis: from a rise in cases of unemployment, to the bankruptcy of some merchants, to a general stagnation in the various walks of life...

This disturbance in the economic balance must have its principal causes, and it is for the economists alone to search and dig for them. What concerns us now is the effect of this disturbance on our social structure generally, and on the family in particular... What are its consequences for the Lebanese family? Will it face a problem new of its kind, forcing it to give up some of its rights and lower its standard of living? Will the marriage crisis among us grow worse, so that the proportion of the married dwindles little by little, and the family suffers a drought in the renewal of offspring, and woman suffers twice the injustice that befalls man?

It is quite clear that the remedy of the present situation is beyond woman's power—or it may be said that it is not her affair—yet she is able to soften the sharpness of this crisis, to maneuver matters and outwit it with some wisdom and endurance, until the crisis dissolves and passes—and every crisis must pass, once someone is found to revive its economy and set its firewood ablaze, by founding construction, industrial, and agricultural projects, and multiplying activity and, consequently, working hands.

Until the public and private bodies awaken to their national duty in the face of present circumstances, woman must play the part of the nurse, who gives first aid until the doctor arrives and treats the ailment.

The practical way to do this is a thorough study of the family budget, and learning "where" and "how" expenses can be cut by fifty or thirty percent without touching the essential requirements of living—I say "essential" because the Lebanese family, in its manner of living, indulges itself far above the average of its income—and this fact may be among the primary causes that led to this crisis, and it is a virtue to turn back from it.

We in Lebanon no longer distinguish easily between the necessities of living and its luxuries; or perhaps we have grown more attached to the luxuries: our outings to the "cinema" and to "take the air" are regular; our wardrobes are heaped with silks and colors; and our families, even those below the middle rank, rely on servants for most of their housework, overlooking the vast difference in expense between a house run by the maid and a house run by its mistress...

And in traditions—we are still slaves of traditions: as if it were a binding duty, in the seasons of feasts, to exhaust our pockets with preparations and banquets—banquets for the body, all extravagance and lavishness—leaving in our budget great hollow gaps that the monthly savings cannot fill...

And as if it were a binding duty, in our weddings, to observe all the preliminaries and sequels that our grandmothers of old walked by, which conflict with the simplicity of this practical age and stand as a stumbling block in the way of many of our weddings!

And what crisis compares with the marriage crisis? What moral and psychological woes it brings upon the family, apart from what it leads to in the end—a decline in births and a shrinking of the nation's standing among the other nations.

It is no longer permissible, after today, that we stand with folded hands before our emerging problems, whatever their kind, as if the matter did not concern us. The time has come for us, as women citizens who have exercised their political right, to grasp our responsibility in full, lest we be condemned and accused of negligence and recklessness...

As for this economic crisis with which we are concerned, it is well to prepare ourselves for it and to help man solve it.