Hailey Kurth

90019455

Dr. Mona Said

23 May 2022

Women in the Labor Force Final

Female labor force participation is a complicated issue in the Middle East/North Africa
region. It is a problem that affects almost every country mainly due to the traditional belief in the
region that men are the providers and women and the caretakers. While this is not an inherently
negative way to live, many countries in the region have found their economic growth has stunted
and have realized that it is almost impossible to grow an economy when you are excluding half
of the potential workforce. Women are typically less educated and have lower literacy rates than
their male counterparts. However, in this paper we will be focusing on Jordan’s female labor for
participation, and their women have some of the highest literacy rates in the region (97.8%) but
have the lowest female labor force participation rate of country not at world in not only the
region but the entire world at 15% (Lister, 2022). The causes of this discrepancy will be
discussed along with Jordan’s policies to tackle this issue along with its potential implications.

There are several factors that contribute to Jordan’s low rate of female labor participation
including cultural norms, lack of available jobs, discrimination and low wages, and the lack of
childcare and transportation. Cultural norms and societal expectations have the biggest impact on
the low rate of participation because when a country does not expect its women to work, they do
not create an economy in which they can easily participate. A survey done by the World Bank
found that 96% of the surveyed Jordanian population thinks it is acceptable for women to work,
but then found that over 60% of surveyed believe it is unacceptable for women to work in a
mixed-gender workplace, over 70% thought it was unacceptable for women to have a job the
requires them to return home after 5pm, and almost half the surveyed people found it
unacceptable for women to work if it required her to leave her children (Lister, 2022). It is clear
there are strict barriers for women’s participation even if people agree they should work. With
these social constraints in mind, it is very difficult for women to find jobs, so this leads to a lack
of “acceptable” jobs for women to work further decreasing their participation. On top of this,
there is a labor shortage in Jordan, and according to the Borgen Project “80% of people believe
that men should have more rights to jobs than women,” mainly due to societal norms that men
are to be the breadwinners (Dan, 2020). Leading to the discrimination in hiring of women, and
during COVID, women were more likely to lose their jobs (Lister, 2022). This belief also
contributes heavily to the pay gap in Jordan, where the World Bank found that in the private
sector men are paid 40% more than women and 28% in the public sector (Sweis, 2021). When
women are not being paid adequately, there is no economic benefit of them leaving the home,
especially with limited childcare and lack of safe transportation, which a survey found that “47%
of women reported turning down job opportunities due to lack of efficient and affordable public
transportation” (Lister, 2022). The interconnectedness of culture and economy makes it
increasingly difficult to diversify the economy while encouraging women to work.

In light of this issue, Jordan has implemented the Women’s Economic Empowerment
Action Plan under the Mashreq Gender Facility where the overall goal is to increase women’s
participation in the work force by 24% over five years (by 2025). There are six pillars to the plan
that all have specific policies that will be implemented to achieve these pillars. These pillars are:
amending the labor law and relevant legislations to promote women’s economic participation,
increasing capacity for the government to address constraints to women’s participation through
knowledge and evidence, support creation of family-friendly and non-discriminatory work
environments, increasing women’s employment in the private sector, increasing and supporting
the amount of female-led enterprises and corporations, and improving overall attitudes towards
women in the workforce among the community and employers (Women’s Economic
Empowerment Action Plan, 2020). Some of the specific policies included are: wage protection,
improving sex disaggregated data, expand legal protections to employees, adequate and
affordable childcare, code of ethics for drivers/workers in public transport, improve education to
promote gender equality, fiscal and tax incentives for employing a certain percentage of women,
and expand gender responsive lending solutions and investments (Women’s Economic
Empowerment Action Plan, 2020). This plan was presented in 2020, but since then, a pandemic
has happened that has changed everything about the way we work. Companies are more
accepting of work from home along with ability of starting business within the home, which
could be another unexplored way of increasing Jordan’s female labor participation rate because
you do not have to contradict cultural norms. Jordan has increasing female labor force
participation rate as a priority, but these things are easier said than done, and the complexity
between economy and society has the potential to hinder these plans.

If this action plan is not only implemented but is followed through on, it can be a great
thing for the women in Jordan who want to work. The fact alone that Jordan wants to increase its
government’s ability to collect, interpret, and analyze data on gender in their country could give
help reforms happen quicker because there will be hard evidence to support women’s claims on
gender inequality and discrimination. However, it is difficult to find if any of the previously
mentioned policies have had any action taken on them, which is something to consider as well.
One, very important, potential implication for women if these policies are enacted is the response
from men. There is a tendency for men to feel threatened when they feel emasculated, and the
feeling of emasculation can come from the feeling of loss of control and/or not making more
money than their wife. The New York Times interviewed a woman in Jordan who faced this
issue where she made more money than her husband, he resented her for this and her marriage
almost fell apart: “I became adamant that I wasn’t going to quit, but eventually I found no
support and I just got tired and gave up […] I went back to cooking, cleaning, gossiping with
women. And this wasn’t my ambition” (Sweis, 2021). This is a consequence of these policies
that can not only negatively affect women, but potentially put them in harms ways, and also be a
reason they do not join the labor force even with policies to make it easier for them. Overall, I do
believe the successful implementation of this plan will benefit women in Jordan and help grow
their economy. If Jordan’s economy grows due to policies put forth specifically for women, then
other countries in the region may follow suit. As we have seen all over the world, countries will
do almost anything to expand their economy even if it is against cultural/societal/religious
norms.

The Middle East/North African region has a very complicated and difficult task of
integrating women into the labor force because many of their economy’s do not have enough
jobs to support labor as is. The lack of economic diversification in these economies is one of the
many reason cultural norms are not shifting in favor of women working because there are few
examples, especially in Jordan, of the benefits of higher female labor force participation. Women
need to be better protected not only in the workplace, to and from the workplace, and from
discrimination of hiring and wages. Once citizens see the benefit of women working that is when
the cultural norms will truly begin to change, and then women will be encouraged to spend time
outside of the home.
 Works Cited

Ait Ali Slimane, Meriem; Lundvall, Jonna; Mohindra, Komal; Al Abbadi, Shereen;

Kurshitashvili, Nato; Hisou, Ola. 2020. Women's Economic Empowerment in

Jordan. MENA Knowledge and Learning Quick Notes Series;No. 179. World Bank,
Washington, DC. © World Bank.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/33587 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”

Dan, S. (2020, November 3). Women's rights in Jordan: Why women do not work. The Borgen
Project. Retrieved May 23, 2022, from https://borgenproject.org/womens-rights-in-jordan/

Lister, C., Marks, J., & Sharif, O. A. (2022, April 29). Women's labor force participation and
covid-19 in Jordan. Middle East Institute. Retrieved May 23, 2022, from
https://www.mei.edu/publications/womens-labor-force-participation-and-covid-19-jordan

Sweis, R. F. (2021, April 3). Women, 86 percent absent from Jordan's work force, are left
behind. The New York Times. Retrieved May 23, 2022, from
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/world/middleeast/jordan-women-work-force.html

Women’s Economic Empowerment Action Plan. (2020). PowerPoint

https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/379131574445136942-0280022019/render/
JordanWEEAPJan192019en.pdf