Think tank calls for improving women’s economic participation

AMMAN — The Phenix Centre for Economic and Informatics Studies on Saturday called for developing workplace conditions in Jordan to attract more women to the job market.

Marking International Women’s Day, annually observed on March 8, the centre, which also has a labour observatory, called for reviewing strategies and programmes that seek to improve women’s economic participation in the public and private sectors.

According to Ahmad Awad, Phenix centre director, there has been no improvement in women’s participation in the job market over the past few years, although Jordan is one of the countries where the rate of female enrolment in both schools and universities is higher than that of males.

Official figures state that participation of girls and women aged 15 years and above in the job market is 12.6 per cent, compared to 60.3 per cent of men in the same age bracket.

“This rate is not improving and has been the same for years,” Awad told The Jordan Times.

Figures issued by the Department of Statistics (DoS) last week showed that only 16 per cent of women were in the local labour market in 2013.

DoS statistics indicated that 53.9 of women in the labour market work in the education sector and 45.8 per cent are employed in the medical and social sectors.

The gender pay gap stood at 24 per cent in 2013, with around a 1 per cent increase in 2014.

The average monthly salary of men employed in the private sector stands at JD489, while the average salary for women is JD381, according to the Social Security Corporation database.

In the public sector, the average salary of women stands at JD459, compared to JD407 for men.