Where gender equality?

The latest quarterly report by the Department of Statistics has both good and bad news concerning unemployment in the country.

Unemployment, said the department, stood at 11.4 per cent in the third quarter of this year, compared to 14 per cent in the same period last year. 

That could be considered as good a piece of news as a less than 3 per cent decrease in the number of jobless Jordanians could be.

Interestingly, whereas unemployment among men dropped 1.2 per cent in the period, the rate for women went up by 1.9 per cent.

That is bad news. True, consistent with the state of affairs when general unemployment is high — and men are given priority, always considered the bread winners even when women prove they can assume that role — but still bad.

And the problem does not stop there.

Unemployment among men university graduates holding bachelor or higher degrees stood at 25.1 per cent, while for women reached 85.6 per cent.

So much for the money, time and effort invested in educating our daughters!

This picture about the state of employment in the country suggests that there is something terribly wrong when it comes to gender equality.

Specifically, our nation’s belief in, indeed the whole culture regarding equality between sexes leaves much to be desired, official rhetoric to the contrary notwithstanding.

To achieve gender equality, there is a need for nationwide campaigns to raise awareness among employers that Jordan is bound, by its own laws as well as by international human rights conventions, to afford men and women equal treatment.

If all fails, major businesses should be compelled to have quotas for women in order to ensure that they get a fair chance to get employed.

And when women are employed, employers must make sure that they earn equal pay for work of equal value.

Besides these measures, courts must enforce legislation pertaining to gender equality by considering cases of violations of this principle and making rulings on them.

The country must give teeth to its laws on women’s rights by having the judiciary step in and adopting the necessary decisions to give them effect.

Jordan, like the rest of the world, should stop treating women as second class citizens.

Once it does that, the country stands to benefit tremendously.