"women Towards Parliament" - Media Supporting Potential Women Leaders

The SMART Center and Women in Front joint project entitled: "Women Towards Parliament" aims to improve the participation and influence of women in the political process in Lebanon before the legislative elections in 2013, through implementing a national media strategy that will promote positive image of potential women candidates. This national campaign will achieve a breakthrough in the number of women participating as voters and their confidence in women candidates, which will increase the number of women participants in the parliament.
The project will produce a directory that collects at between 100 - 150 biographies of potential women candidates. It will be distributed to all media institutions in Lebanon to increase the visibility of women who know politics and who are qualified to run for elections and win as deputies representing all citizens. A group of journalists will receive a training to empower their journalistic skills for better promoting potential women candidates' positive image. A networking event will be implemented to join both journalists and potential women candidates.
This event's outcome is definitely an increase in the number of articles and interviews conducted about these women. In addition to the role of trained journalists in promoting the important role of women in politics, the National Media campaign will consist of producing 6 TV commercials (30 seconds each) which will be aired on national TV stations during 2-3 months before the legislative elections expected to be in June 2013. These TV commercials will be used in 6 round tables discussing the important role of women voters in supporting potential women candidates conducted with Lebanese NGOs' members and beneficiaries. The closure of the project is a press conference held after the Lebanese coming elections.