An obstacle course

This article is part of Executive’s special report on women in the workplace. Read more stories as they’re published here, or pick up March’s issue at newsstands in Lebanon. True story: Two candidates are applying for the post of development officer at a well established institution in Lebanon. Candidate A has two years working experience over candidate B, nine years in total, more international experience and enjoys a wider relevant network of key contacts, having chaired charities in the institution’s field. While candidate A would seem like the obvious choice for the position, the institution still hired candidate B, a male. Why? As candidate A, a woman, later learned from an inside source, the hiring director feared that her gender made her an “unstable” investment: that, while both candidates were single at the time, she would get married and choose to quit her career. Workplace discrimination comes in many forms, from racial, to