The Jordanian Labour Observatory: The reasons behind the absence of women in contributing to the Jordanian economy

The Labour Observatory revealed that the reasons for the non-progress of the women’s role in the economic life in Jordan are due to the bad working conditions in the Jordanian labour market, for both men and women, especially because of the low wages.

In a recent study, it highlighted that women are more exposed to the violations of their basic rights than men. In addition, it pointed out to the weakness of the public transport network, consequently, the workers spend too much time on their way to work and back home. Thus, women are discouraged to engage in the labour market, in addition to the large number of companies that refrain from establishing nurseries for the children of their workers although this is compulsory by law according to Article (72) of the Labour Law.

According to many reports issued by the Jordanian Labour Observatory, the majority of women working in the small private sector and the informal economy are subjected to many infringements of the Jordanian Labour Law and the international labour standards. In fact, large numbers of them work more than 8 hours per day. They are even deprived of the social security and have to work on public holidays. Besides, many of them receive very low wages below the minimum wage, lack employment stability and are subjected to various forms of violence. Thus, the weakness of the work conditions is the most important factor for the regression of women in the contribution to the labour market.

In its study, the observatory pointed out that women with disabilities face multiple challenges in employment compared with men, which is characterized by the presence of many difficulties that hamper them from finding suitable job opportunities and narrow their access to employment in general. Women seem to be mostly recruited out of pity than for their skills. Moreover, they are subjected to various kinds of harassment which prevent them from entering in the labour market, especially in the private sector. In addition to all that, family tend to not accept seeing women going out to work.

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