Women’s labour force participation rates stagnating — JLW report

AMMAN — The Jordan Labour Watch (JLW) called for restructuring women’s work environments in Jordan to increase women’s economic participation.  

A paper titled “Women’s work environment is not empowering and needs restructuring” was published by the Phenix Centre for Economic and Informatics Studies on the occasion of International Women’s Day in cooperation with the Fredrich Ebert Stiftung Institution and the JLW.  

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is “Gender equality today, for a sustainable tomorrow”.

According to the paper, women were most affected by the pandemic socially and economically, and economic participation for women decreased by 0.4 per cent during the third quarter of 2021. 

The paper added that women’s participation in the workforce has decreased due to the pandemic, and has not bounced back since then. 

Jordan ranked 131 out of 156 countries worldwide in the Global Gender Gap Index and fifth in the Middle East and North Africa region, according to a report by the World Economic Forum. 

The “unemployment rate among women reached 30.8 per cent during the third quarter of 2021”, the paper reported, noting that it is harder for women to be involved in the labour market than their male colleagues.

The paper added that since women are considered caregivers in society, they are more likely to leave their jobs to comply with their home responsibilities as a result of societal obligations. 

The “wage gap between men and women in the public sector reached 13.6 per cent, while in the private sector it reached 14 per cent”, the paper noted.  

According to the report, women are less likely to be promoted or earn incentives in the labour market, which might lead to their unwillingness to be involved in the workforce, while “cultural constraints on female mobility in society are also a challenge for working women”. 

“The female workforce is highly concentrated in the healthcare and education sectors,” the paper reported. 

The paper also noted that the stagnation of women’s economic participation rates in the Kingdom results from “non-friendly work environments” that apply to both men and women. 

“We need to adopt several measures to support working women,” Ahmad Awad, director of the Phenix Centre, told The Jordan Times. 

Awad added that increasing maternity leave to 90 days instead of 70, raising paid wages in the private and public sectors and establishing reliable and accessible public transport are essential factors to encouraging women to enter the labour market. 

He also highlighted that women’s employment is a successful step to “combat poverty and walk toward progress”.