Share Story
AMMAN — The COVID-19 pandemic took its toll on women’s economic participation in Jordan, and the governments long wait time and costly business procedures are not helping women regain access to the labour market, according to female business owners.
Sarah and Shatha are two Jordanian business owners, who were significantly affected by COVID-19 pandemic. Both of them had to stop operating during the pandemic and are still unable to bounce back since then.
“I work in customised textile. I lost over 60 per cent of my monthly sales since the pandemic,” Shatha told The Jordan Times.
Shatha added that she maximised her effort in order to bounce back to the sales she used to make pre-COVID by registering a company and gaining the ability to sell her products abroad.
According to Shatha, a business owner needs to have a registered company to enable them ship their products abroad and expand their market.
Other necessary procedures include registering the company with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply, hiring a lawyer, renting a business space and getting approval from Greater Amman Municipality (GAM).
“These procedures require a minimum of JD3,000 — JD4,000 in addition to a very long wait time,” said Shatha.
Meanwhile, Sarah, a Jordanian designer, decided to close her business due to accumulated debt.
Sara suggested giving Jordanian entrepreneurs who were affected by the pandemic a chance to register their companies and operate in the Kingdom with minimal licencing fees.
Calling for more support to entrepreneurs, Sara said that “entrepreneurs have a lot of expenses to pay when they first launch their projects”. According to the department of Statistics, women’s unemployment rate in Jordan stands at 29.4 per cent.
Meanwhile, a recent report by the Workers’ House for Studies titled “Unemployment and Economic Participation of Women after the pandemic”, stated that the pandemic imposed additional financial and social challenges on Jordanian women.
“Women were the most affected category with businesses’ closures,” the report added.
Furthermore, the study suggests that many women were pushed out of the labour market due to accumulated financial and psychological burdens.
“Unemployment among women reached 30.7 per cent in 2021,” the report added.
The report added that 92,000 of the unemployed women in Jordan are educated and have degrees.
Currently, women’s participation in the workforce stands at 14 per cent.
