GAM receives flak for ‘discriminatory’ job ad

AMMAN — Women’s groups and social media users on Monday slammed a Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) advertisement that specified “males” as a criterion for 22 engineering job postings.

In the ad, run in coordination with the Civil Service Bureau, GAM stated there was a need for 22 male civil and architectural engineers in road construction, transportation, engineering and city planning divisions.

Sisterhood is Global Institute (SIGI) on Monday issued a statement calling on GAM Mayor Yousef Shawarbeh to correct the ad and make it gender inclusive.

“SIGI condemns the ad that specifies only males for the job openings. This is a clear discrimination against qualified women and lessens their chances of competition and employment,” SIGI said in the statement.

This is also a clear violation of equal employment opportunities. There must be equality and justice in choosing the right candidate for the right post regardless of the gender, the statement added.

President of the Jordanian Women Union, Tahani Shakhshir, also voiced her disapproval for the ad.

“The person or entity that placed such an ad should immediately issue an apology and withdraw the ad from circulation,” Shakhshir told The Jordan Times.

This is a clear violation of the Jordanian Constitution that stipulates that all Jordanians are equal before the law, regardless of their ethnicity, language or religion, Shakhshir added.

“Women should have the same employment opportunities as men do.  This ad is in clear violation of their rights and surely deprives qualified women from assuming such jobs,” she added.

Government Coordinator for Human Rights, Basel Tarawneh, said that he contacted GAM which informed him that there were a total of 70 job openings, including 22 specifically reserved for males and six reserved for females.

“I was informed that the 22 job openings that specified men only were related to emergency divisions, especially during winter, because they are dangerous and hazardous jobs and require late night shifts,” Tarawneh told The Jordan Times. 

Meanwhile, a GAM official told The Jordan Times that there are no instructions or regulations that “prevent specifying the gender of the job applicants”.

“It is the right of GAM to decide who it wants to employ based on the job’s circumstances and pressures, late working hours and emergency circumstances during winter time in a manner that would best serve the municipality,” the GAM official said.

 The official added that GAM has recently hired several females to occupy certain professions and in one instance, “there were six jobs that were strictly for women”.

There are also 3,000 women working in various departments at GAM, the official said, and some have assumed high ranking posts, including a deputy assistant to the health and agriculture city director. He stressed that 35 females are currently occupying directorial positions alongside other leading posts.  

Nevertheless, dozens of people commented on the GAM ad, expressing their discontent with the “discriminatory ad”, stating that “such attitude needs to change”.

“This is pure discrimination and our country cannot remain in this state.  We need to fight discrimination in all its forms,” Ani Orfali said.

She told The Jordan Times that “women are capable and willing to take any profession and perform just like men, if not better”.

Other people commented on the ad posted on GAM’s Facebook page.

“GAM, the King and Queen are supporting women’s rights in Jordan and you are still specifying the gender of the occupation?” Amer Al Saleh wrote.

“The majority of the excelling students at my university are females,” Al Saleh added.

For her part, Lubna Omari wrote : “Why did you specify males in your ad GAM? This is not fair. I am one of the top students in my graduation batch and the majority of top students were females.”

Meanwhile, Anne Gharaibeh said that GAM should be sued for discriminating against women.

“It is discriminating against our women in general and against our graduates in particular.  I think we can sue GAM for this ad. It is discriminating against women,” she posted.