Lebanese women ‘more optimistic’ than French counterparts

Aude de Thuin is no ordinary woman. The French entrepreneur and founder of Women’s Forum, who refers to herself as a “compulsive businesswoman,” says Lebanese women, unlike French ones, have a more optimistic approach to dealing with their conditions and exerting efforts to change them. De Thuin is in Beirut this week to discuss with Lebanese women’s rights activists the message of her book “Femmes, si vous osiez: le monde s’en porterait mieux” (Women, if you dare: the world will be better). “What women all over the world have in common is their lack of confidence in themselves,” the author told The Daily Star. “Lack of confidence, and often a lack of ambition ... That’s the same here [in Lebanon], in France ... all over the world. “What is very different between Lebanon and France,” she continues, “is that here we are in an optimistic country ... There’s a sort of levity. A way of living life by putting difficulties aside and emphasizing the positives, and this is not the case in France. In France we focus on what is negative. Here, one is carried by a beautiful energy. “The message that I bring to women is ... they have to stop being victims,” she explains. “I have studied what has happened here in Lebanon, I know that there are women who are victims – but the more they consider themselves victims the more they will be victims. “So the message is ... to say to older women: ‘Help the younger generation – serve as examples to others.’ Because we need role models. We need a force which says ‘Don’t be content with the statutes of being a woman – take action.’” De Thuin has certainly practiced what she preaches. The French entrepreneur started her first business at the age of 22. Since then she has launched a successful new company every 10 years, most notably Women’s Forum, an economic forum to rival Davos – the yearly meeting of the World Economic Forum. She initially wanted to take part in Davos, she reveals, but when she wrote to them she never received a reply. “That annoyed me,” she recalls. “I very quickly understood that there were two reasons. The first was I was a woman and Davos had between 3 and 5 percent women ... and I didn’t interest them because I had a small business. “The press said that Davos was the place where we conceive the world of tomorrow,” she continues. “I found that abnormal ... that we could think of the world of tomorrow without women. So I decided to create Women’s Forum.” De Thuin sold her other business and hired the ex-CEO of Davos “to show that the world is made up of men and women.” “Everybody thought I was crazy,” she recalls. She was rewarded for her daring however. “We were elected the third most influential forum in the world after just three years,” she says – a high point amid a series of financial problems caused by the recession which forced her to sell the company a year later. Sixty-year-old de Thuin has not let this stop her. Since leaving Women’s Forum she has written a book and launched a French forum, “Osons la France” (France we dare). She has also pledged to contribute 20 percent of her time to working with women around the world, including women’s forums in Lebanon. Aude de Thuin’s book, “Femmes, si vous osiez: le monde s’en porterait mieux,” is currently available from Librairie Antoine. By The Daily Star