AMMAN —
Women constitute 47 percent of the total
population of Jordan, and 17.5 percent of
the total Jordanian families in 2020 are headed by women, but the rate of
economic activity for Jordanian women is 14.2 percent, compared to 53.6 percent
for males, according to the Department
of Statistics.
اضافة اعلان
The rate of
economic activity for
Jordanian women is among the lowest in the world, where
the rate is about 47.9 percent globally, and in the region it stands at 31
percent, according to Jordan Labor Watch (JLW).
The unemployment
rate for females reached 30.8 percent, compared to 21.2 percent for males
during the third quarter of 2021.
Women who left the
labor market during the coronavirus pandemic “did not return, unlike men, as
the female economic participation rate decreased by 0.4 percent during the
third quarter of 2021,” the
JLW stated.
The
International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that increasing women’s participation in the
labor force by only 25 percent would increase GDP growth by 10 percent.
Enabling women to obtain paid work will “reduce poverty and expand the middle
class,” according to the JLW.
Jordan has
progressed 7 places in the ranking of gender gaps in the region, to
become 131 out of 156 countries and fifth in the Middle East.
There are several reasons that drive women to
withdraw from the labor market: the lack of regulations for a working
environment friendly for working women, the lack of adequate and regular
transportation, the absence of nurseries, low wages, the wage gap between males
and females, the poor alignment between education outputs and the requirements
of job opportunities, in addition to the occupational segregation.
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