Global index sheds light on Jordanian women’s ‘very low’ economic participation

AMMAN — Jordan ranked 129th on the 2019 Women, Peace and Security Index that covered 167 countries, the Jordan Strategy Forum (JSF) said on Tuesday in a paper titled "Briefly".

The index is issued by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security in partnership with the Peace Research Institute of Oslo and it assesses the performance of countries in three main aspects: Inclusion, justice and security, according to a JSF statement.

The paper included recommendations to improve Jordan's ranking on the index through reconsidering weaknesses in sub-categories, the forum said, noting that improving the Jordanian women's conditions will lead to better women empowerment and gender equality.

The JSF said that women economic participation on the index stood at 14 per cent, which is considered "very low", compared with countries like Sweden (61 per cent) and Oman (31 per cent).

As for the parliamentary representation sub-category, the women parliamentary representation in the Kingdom stood at 15.4 per cent, which is less than Sweden (47 per cent) and Oman (23 per cent).

Norway ranked first on the index and Yemen was the last, while the UAE topped Arab countries on the index, the forum noted. 

The inclusion aspect is measured by women’s achievements in education, employment and parliamentary representation, as well as access to cell phones and financial services, according to the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security’s website.

Justice is captured in both formal and informal aspects. It includes the extent of discrimination against women in the legal system. It also measures a bias in favour of sons and exposure to discriminatory norms, specifically those against women in economic opportunities and the world of paid work, the website said.

Security is measured at the family, community, and societal levels. It includes lifetime intimate partner violence. One in three women globally has experienced violence at home, with the rate rising as high as 78 per cent in one country. 

Perception of community safety — which affects women’s mobility and opportunities outside the home — is included as organised violence, measured in battle deaths from state-based, non-state, and one-sided conflicts per 100,000, according to the website.