Calls rise to increase women’s quota in boardrooms

AMMAN — Jordanian businesswomen on Saturday revealed their plan to renew calls for introducing a women’s quota in the chambers of trade and industry, to have better representation in industrial decision-making positions.

“We have been calling for a women’s quota in both chambers for several years because women are rarely represented in these two important bodies,” said former deputy president of the Jordan and Amman chambers of commerce Reem Badran.

Badran told The Jordan Times that the majority of board members are men and they “do not have full knowledge of female business owners’ needs and cannot defend our rights when a law is introduced by the government”.

Badran was an elected board member of the Amman Chamber of Commerce (ACC) in 2009 and 2013, becoming the first and only woman in Jordan to be elected to this post since 1923.

She also served as the chief executive officer of the Jordan Investment Board.

Badran mentioned that a draft chamber of commerce Law containing a quota for women was submitted by the government a couple of years ago.

“But this draft law has been sitting in the Lower House of Parliament’s drawers for the past four years,” according to Badran, who was elected to the boards of Jordan and Amman chambers of commerce in 2009.

That is why, she added, “we want to revive the matter and start a debate among legislators and people in the industry sector”.

“I have good experience in the chambers, and it is of utmost importance to have a woman board member so that our demands are addressed and met,” Badran explained.

In addition, the former MP added that “since the majority of board members are men, women business owners do not get the chance to meet with visiting delegations or get to travel to secure their own business deals”.

The number of female company co-owners across all sectors was 8,715 in 2021, with a 2.9 per cent capital contribution compared with other partners, according to a study conducted by the ACC Businesswomen’s Committee at the Amman Chamber of Commerce in 2022.

The report also showed that there are 1,492 companies in which women have at least a 50 per cent ownership stake.

Dina Khayyat, who was elected to the Zarqa Chamber of Industry (ZCI) in 2022, told The Jordan Times that it is of utmost importance to have women participation on the boards.

“It is important to have several women in boards or chambers, allowing for diversity and different ideas and point of views that women have been deprived of due to a lack in representation,” Khayyat, who served in four ZCI boards, added.

International Labour Organisation (ILO) Arab States gender technical specialist Reem Aslan said that this is an opportunity to build on the companies law which was endorsed and published in the official Gazette. “This law was welcomed by ILO as it included for the first time a representation for women on boards of companies,” Aslan told The Jordan Times. 

Aslan added that the ILO is the custodian of achieving Sustainable Development Goal 5.5 on ensuring full participation in leadership and decision-making, and its indicator 5.5.2 on the proportion of women in managerial positions. 

“We are glad that Jordan with the support of ILO succeeded in amending companies law to include a representation of women on boards,” Aslan said. 

It is an important step towards empowering Jordanian women to hold leadership positions, and “increasing the female labour force participation in the country in general”, Aslan added, calling on other Arab countries to take similar steps. 

Jordan did not only conduct studies and identify a roadmap in partnership with women on boards, a civil society organisation, for what needs to be done but also formed a coalition under the leadership of the Jordanian National Committee for Women with Jordan Business and Professional Women’s Association, Women on Boards, Jordanian National Forum for Women and the ILO. The coalition is currently working on follow up steps to the new law amendment, Aslan added.