This Research Paper was published in collaboration between the Journal of International Service and American University’s School of International Service chapter of Women, Peace, and Security to highlight a selection of writing and research on women’s issues in international affairs.
By Kaitlyn Hill
Overview
The ongoing political upheaval in Syria, which began in 2010, has resulted in millions of Syrians becoming refugees.[i] The majority of these desperate people have been housed for more than a decade in Syria’s geographic neighbors, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraqi-Kurdistan, and Turkey. [ii] In Jordan and Lebanon in particular their sheer numbers have overwhelmed local resources and impacted national stability largely by illuminating pre-existing structural weaknesses in resource delivery systems.[iii] [iv] These Syrians live as wards of the Government of Jordan (GOJ) with sizable funding from international organizations and Western European states who prioritize, respectively, the health and wellbeing of refugees and their containment far from European shores.[v] However, continued violence and instability prevent their return to Syria, whilst international funding and focus have shifted to new emergencies, and Jordan’s economy remains weak.[vi] This has left the government of Jordan to contend with the question of what to do with this vast body of people.
In this paper, it is argued that the answer to this essential question is neither to deport these refugees nor continue to carry them as an economic burden. Rather there is a third option, which is to incorporate them more fully into the Jordanian economy and society to the net benefit of both communities. A study of Syrian and Jordanian women’s economic inclusion sponsored by UN Women asserts that women are an important, largely untapped potential resource for Jordan’s economic revitalization. [vii] Syrian refugee women in particular have the potential to fill gaps in key economic sectors if they are provided the necessary legal permissions, training, and support. Their inclusion could also support the greater inclusion of Jordanian women and alleviate the strain on public resources by decreasing the indigent and dependent population in the country.
Introduction
Jordan currently hosts approximately 1.36 million Syrian refugees, 653,868 of whom are registered with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).[viii] Accounting for registered refugees alone, 50.1% are women, 48.7% are 17 or younger, and 4.1% are over 60.[ix] Most
| Proportion of Working Age Registered Refugees[x] | |
| Total Working Age (Approximate) | 47% (307,397) |
| Working Age Women | 11.28% |
| Working Age Men | 10.81% |
Syrians live in urban areas in the four northern governates of Amman, Irbid, Al Mafraq, and Zarqa while only 19.5% live in refugee camps.[xi][xii] Syrians are only one of the large refugee communities sheltering in the country who in total make up 30% of the Jordanian population roughly 9.5 million people as of 2018.[xiii] This number includes Palestinian refugees who have Jordanian nationality.[xiv] The addition of this new sizable population on top of the millions already in the country has severely strained Jordan’s resources and institutions. As the GOJ struggles to find solutions to housing, electricity, health care, and water access, the crisis is exacerbated by a faltering economy that has seen double-digit unemployment and poverty rates, particularly in the Syrian community.[xv] Syrian refugees are also prone to higher rates of chronic illness than their Jordanian counterparts, which put significant pressure on health delivery systems and infrastructure.[xvi] The strain and the public outcry it created, due to the perception that Syrians were getting preferential treatment, caused the GOJ to revoke Syrians access to free medical services in 2015.[xvii] Therefore the lack of employment opportunities contributes further to their general impoverishment, increases their financial burden, and forces children to work or fall prey to early marriage arrangements instead of attending school.[xviii] [xix]
As of September 2023, the percentage of registered refugees of working age was 47% (307,397).[xx] Although Jordan received praise for issuing a record 62,000 work permits to Syrian refugees in 2021 and has issued 403,358 since 2016, the reality is that women are woefully underrepresented.[xxi] [xxii] Syrian women, who make up more than half of the 47% of Syrian refugees who are of working age, only account for about 9% of the work permits that have been issued since 2016.[xxiii] Research by UN Women and scholars like Wafa Elias, Dima Toukan, Lucia Hanmer, and Cevdet Acu and many others suggest that this is due not to choice, but to the failure of the Jordanian government and its international partners to foster an environment for their inclusion.
| Global Gender Gap Report Indicators-Jordan 2023[xxiv] | Out of 146 Countries | Score Change Since 2022 |
| Global Gender Gap[xxv] | 126 | +0.007 |
| Economic Participation and Opportunity[xxvi] | 125 | N/A |
| Labor-force Participation[xxvii] | 144 | N/A |
| Educational Attainment[xxviii] | 66 |
According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap 2023 report on gender parity in 146 countries, Jordan ranks poorly in the areas of pay equity, economic participation and opportunities, and labor participation as illustrated in the table below.[xxix] This is despite attempts to promote gender equality through collaboration with local civil society organizations, UN Women, and the International Labor Organization and changes in domestic policy. The GOJ has made changes to the national Constitution to explicitly include Jordanian women in the allocation of rights and duties and has committed to promote their empowerment and to prevent violence and discrimination against them.[xxx] It also introduced the 2020-2025 National Strategy for Women in Jordan and the Jordan Decent Work Country Programme.[xxxi] Collectively these policy initiatives strive to affirm the GOJ’s commitment to gender equality and decent working conditions, particularly by seeking to eliminate gender discrimination, harassment, and violence from society and the workplace.
However, more needs to be done to continue the momentum and ensure the equitable inclusion of women in the country’s economic growth and development. Estimates say that economic efficiency could increase the Jordanian gross domestic product (GDP) by 5% if women were more fairly included and remunerated.[xxxii] To remedy this situation for Syrian refugee women, there needs to be systemic change in the perception of the woman’s role in the economy as well as a commitment to adopt decisive policies for removing barriers to their participation. It is also to be expected that measures to change the perceptions of Syrian women’s labor both within the refugee community and the country at large will also improve the situation for Jordanian women. Therefore, by increasing economic inclusion and gender equity for Syrian refugee women, the native population will benefit, and Jordan will vastly improve its chances of meeting the SDGs before the 2030 deadline.[xxxiii]
Main Points
1. Gender Equality in Jordan
The ILO in cooperation with the GOJ, Jordanian National Commission for Women (JNCW), and CSOs have identified several shortfalls in the country’s attempts to promote gender equality, namely the lack of pay equity, economic opportunity, and labor participation.[xxxiv] This aligns with the barriers highlighted in a UN Women sponsored assessment from 2016 that consisted of a quantitative representative telephone survey of 609 Jordanian and Syrian women, conducted from 23 May-22 June in 2016, as well as a qualitative element.[xxxv] This qualitative piece consisted of 12 focus group discussions, half with Syrians and the other half with Jordanians, the geographic distribution of whose participants was based on those regions that had the highest response rate to the original survey.[xxxvi] [xxxvii] Its aim was to measure the ubiquitousness of numerous economic indicators related to their employment status and preferences.[xxxviii] Respondents identified insufficient pay, limited child care access, skills mismatch, and external opposition as the four biggest obstacles to their employment.[xxxix] Of these, “cultural/societal/familial/religious pressure” and “lack of job opportunities fitting women’s skills/education/and training” are the causes that ranked the highest.[xl] Although insufficient pay and child care access also rank quite high, the study found that child care is a greater concern for refugee women and pay equity is a greater concern for Jordanians.[xli]
2. The Impact of External Pressures on Women’s Economic Participation
| Key Obstacles Women’s Employment[xlii] | % |
| Cultural/Societal/Familial/Religious pressures | 43% |
| Lack of job opportunities fitting women’s skills/education/training | 42% |
| Childcare | 35% |
Syrian and Jordanian women both listed cultural, societal, familial and religious pressures as the biggest barrier to their employment.[xliii] As such pressures generally contribute to the expectation of following traditional gender roles, it is problematic that many of the sectors currently open to Syrian refugees, particularly manufacturing and construction, are male-dominated.[xliv] Agriculture is an interesting case as it is a sector where women are traditionally allowed to work in Syria, but that is male-dominated in Jordan.[xlv] This means that Syrian women face opposition to their employment even from community members who support women working outside the home because of the perceived inappropriateness or dangers of the job sectors open to them.[xlvi]
The addition of services, sales, and crafts to the Ministry of Labor’s (MOL) list of economic sectors open to Syrian refugees in July 2021, has helped more women enter formal employment as they are more accessible and culturally acceptable for women.[xlvii] [xlviii] However, job openings are still often far from the urban areas and refugee camps where these women and families reside. [xlix] Thus, job holders face longer periods of absence and significant travel, which is difficult for women whose mobility is limited by the exorbitant cost and pervasive threat of gender-based harassment on public transport, the primary form of transportation in Jordan, as well as prevailing social norms.[l] A recent study on gender, mobility, and the socio-economic differences among Arab communities in Israel and Jordan supported this conclusion through its analysis of activity and travel diary data.[li] It found that women in Jordan are more likely to hold employment if it is located in their immediate community.[lii] This decreases spatial, monetary, and cultural barriers to women’s employment including those related to familial care needs.[liii]
Concerns about women’s safety in the workplace are not unfounded as a 2017 report by JNCW affirmed. The report found that 35.8% of workers, both men and women, reported experiencing some form of harassment in the workplace.[liv] Of the portion of this population who are women, 29.1% reported being harassed by a male coworker.[lv] The threat of gender-based violence may be a significant barrier to women’s employment. Small scale needs assessments conducted within the community point to high rates of sexual and gender-based violence ranging from rape and harassment to assault and intimate partner violence.[lvi]
Jordan has made headway in the elimination of harassment in the workplace. As of January 2022, the MOL reported that 2,028 private sector companies have introduced policies against violence and harassment, representing an increase of more than 100% in two years.[lvii] The MOL has also implemented a new violence and harassment prevention policy and code of conduct in tandem with amendments to the Labour Law inspired by recommendations from CSOs.[lviii] This was in addition to an ILO-lead gender mainstreaming training for employment service officers that was held in April of 2023 and sought to explain the important of international gender standards, the need for gender-responsive practices, women’s economic empowerment, and gender equality.[lix] Another Jordanian CSO has also partnered with the ILO to increase women’s participation in the health care sector through education support, equal pay advocacy, and rights support.[lx]
Even if the GOJ’s new policy initiatives and the MOL and JNCW programs signify a sea change in societal and cultural pressures women face, familial and religious pressures persist. Numerous studies show that in spite of efforts by the GOJ to prohibit domestic violence, it has increased since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic for the most vulnerable communities, namely the poor and refugees.[lxi] This is despite it having been illegal since 2008.[lxii] One reason for this is that domestic-violence is broadly understood to be an internal family issue and victims are discouraged from seeking legal recourse due to a lack of knowledge of their rights, economic dependency, and fear of social stigma and retaliation.[lxiii] [lxiv] Additionally, intimate-partner violence and domestic violence also occur in situations where women are seen as bringing dishonor to the family by diverging from prescribed gender norms.[lxv] [lxvi] Though fighting this scourge is a key component of Jordan’s National Strategy for Women, it has proved difficult to eliminate.[lxvii]
Participants in the UN Women study also suggested that higher pay, part-time or home-based work, and shorter hours may help them counter the objections to their employment by male family members.[lxviii] It was also suggested that awareness-raising campaigns and community outreach programs could help counteract this barrier as may government, CSO, or IGO incentives for women’s employment.[lxix] Participants particularly highlighted the key role of mosques and Imams in community awareness programs as they are best placed to counter misinterpretations of religious doctrine that are used to control women’s actions.[lxx]
3. Skills and Training Mismatch
| Economic Sectors Open to Syrian Refugees (2022) [lxxi] |
| Services and Sales |
| Crafts |
| Agriculture |
| Forestry |
| Fishery |
| Manufacturing |
| Construction |
| Basic Industries |
| Health care *under limited Covid-19 exemptions |
The second major barrier for Syrian women is that their training and skills do not match the jobs that are open to them, and they require support or education in order to attain them. The demographics related to Syrian refugee women’s education and job experience varies widely. A study by UN Women found that 17% of Syrian refugee women had worked prior to becoming refugees and agriculture and education were the dominant employment sectors.[lxxii] Of these two sectors only agriculture is accessible to Syrian refugee women in Jordan as depicted in the table above. According to household level data from UNHCR, roughly 30% of female heads of households have less than 6 years of education, the majority (51.5%) have 6-11 years, and 15.1% have more than 12 years.[lxxiii] [lxxiv] Of the 15.1% who have attained higher education they are nearly completely blocked from holding the jobs for which they are trained, because key sectors like education, health care, and engineering are legally closed to them.[lxxv] The result is the de-professionalization of highly skilled women who are then forced either into low-skilled jobs that do not fully utilize their skills or into the informal sector where they lack social and economic protection.[lxxvi]
In a 2020 report from Human Rights Watch, the connection is made that the refugee community increasingly sees education not as a stepping stone to financial stability and progress, but as an expensive dead-end.[lxxvii] Such job seekers are either forced to find unskilled labor or they engage in employment through UN Volunteers or cash for work programs with NGOs, IGOs, and IOs.[lxxviii] The exception to this was during the COVID-19 epidemic when Syrian women filled gaps in the overwhelmed health care sector, and supported the educational recovery of Syrian children by assisting in classrooms and volunteering with remedial education and tutoring programs within camps.[lxxix] [lxxx] [lxxxi] [lxxxii]
The UN Volunteer program and the various cash for work programs have given excellent opportunities for refugees to give back to their community and to their host-state while gaining work experience and some remuneration, but the reality is that this is not a long-term solution. While high-skilled jobs remain closed to Syrians they are left to languish in poverty leading to continued dependence on the charity of the GOJ and international donors, and women in particular becoming increasingly vulnerable to gender-based violence including incidents tied to early marriage. A phenomenon common to populations in crisis that is known to perpetuate women’s physical insecurity and limit their access to education and employment opportunities.[lxxxiii]
In addition to the long-term solutions that would allow women to find gainful employment in high-skilled sectors through education support and regulatory changes, there is also a need for them to be trained to meet the needs of the sectors presently open to them. Agriculture is a generally acceptable sector for women to engage in so beyond issues of access and safety, the most significant limitation is in regard to male-dominated sectors like construction, manufacturing, forestry, etc. To engage in these fields, women need training as well as support for combating gender norm-based stigma and preventing gender-based violence in the workplace, during lengthy commutes, and at home. Skills training will not only give them access to jobs to meet their immediate needs, but it can also help them grow as valuable assets within their chosen industry increasing the likelihood of women and Syrians greater economic inclusion. It will also continue to benefit them and their families as a more stable income allows for greater access to health care and education within their host country.
4. Childcare Access
Childcare is another major barrier to employment in Jordan for both Jordanian and Syrian women. Though the government has attempted to mandate that employers provide either child care facilities at businesses or pay employees a set fee to pay towards services elsewhere, the fees are insufficient, and most businesses have not opted for providing in-house services.[lxxxiv] As a result, families either avail themselves of free but often unregulated services, the mother stays at home, or they pay exorbitant fees for services that are often inconveniently located.[lxxxv] By increasing the number of trained and certified providers and creating programs for managing costs particularly for struggling families, the GOJ could actively provide greater employment opportunities for refugee and Jordanian women.
As child care is also a sector that is deemed acceptable for women to work in and that, with proper licensing, can allow them to work from home or within their immediate community it would also be an excellent entry point for women into the formal economy.[lxxxvi] In this context location is key as many women have indicated they would prefer to have child care facilities housed not near their employer, but near their homes.[lxxxvii] An additional benefit to home-based child care centers is that they allow women to take care of their own children as well as those under their official care.
5. Challenges
The major challenges to the greater inclusion of Syrian refugee women in Jordan’s economy are the animosity felt towards them by many in the Jordanian populace and the use of refugees as scapegoats for long-standing systemic infrastructure failures.[lxxxviii] Despite the fact that resource mismanagement and infrastructure decay predated the mass arrival of the Syrian refugees, the quantity in which they came and the failure of the GOJ to create a coherent national approach for dealing with their arrival led to massive population pressures.[lxxxix] The continual migration of refugees from Syria over the last decade has led to drastic increases in rent, particularly in the resource poor northern governates and the overtaxing of already weak water electricity delivery systems.[xc] This has resulted in anger and mass public demonstrations.[xci] Many in the GOJ have tried to use the refugees as an excuse for all of these issues, however, as the public amenities in questions are so vital for daily life, these attempts have been partially negated by popular demands for results, not excuses.[xcii] Nevertheless, between the resource crisis and inflammatory government rhetoric, popular views of Syrian refugees have soured making it difficult to argue for greater inclusion. Yet, the greater inclusion of Syrian women is a net benefit for their host state due to their ability to aid in overstretched sectors, provide services that complement the needs of Jordanian women, and assist with the achievement of the SDGs.
Conclusions and Findings
Due to budgetary constraints created by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Covid-19 pandemic, and numerous additional global crises, international financial support for the maintenance of Syrian refugees has been dwindling.[xciii] Therefore, Jordan needs to capitalize on all available avenues for promoting the long-term economic and development goals of the country. Although they have often been labeled little more than a burden, the sizeable Syrian refugee population has the capacity to be an invaluable partner to their host-state. Presently, less than one third of the Syrian population has gainful employment and less than one tenth of its sizable female population are employed as anything other than volunteers.
The situation of Syrian refugee women is a microcosm in the culture of women’s exclusion that has permeated Jordan for too long. Jordanian and Syrian women are vastly underrepresented, under paid, and under valued. Though Jordan has made significant headway in recent years in rectifying this situation, most notably the addition of an anti-discrimination mandate into the state constitution, it is not enough. However, there are actions that the government and civil society can take to improve gender equity and economic inclusion issues in the country.
Recommendations
- Increase Access to Employment Opportunities
a. Opening New Sectors: Education
The Ministry of Labour’s Directorate of Migrant Labour (DMOL) should coordinate with the Ministry of Education to develop programs for including Syrian refugees with teaching experience into, at least, the formal system of camp and second shift education.[xciv] Presently Syrian’s can only work in education as volunteers within refugee camp-based schools or can engage in special tutoring programs through IOs.[xcv] [xcvi] However, the massive influx of Syrian refugees since 2011 and the reality that nearly half of that population are children under 16, and roughly a third of Jordanians are younger than 15, underscores the need for more experienced teachers.[xcvii] [xcviii] The Jordanian education system struggles with overcrowding, strained resources, and overstretched teachers who are often forced to work multiple shifts.[xcix] Syrian camp and second shift schools, which cater disproportionately to Syrian children, are largely staffed by young, inexperienced teachers between the ages of 21 and 30 with less than 5 years’ experience.[c] Due to the lack of experience of these new teachers, who were hired to alleviate the pressures caused by the crisis, more experienced permanent teachers often work the second shift as daily paid teachers in addition to working in their official roles during the first shift in order to provide teachers and students the benefits of their greater experience.[ci] With reports dating as far back as 2016 noting the presence of hundreds of Syrian teachers among the refugee population, it is logical to provide them the means to formally utilize their skills and experience to support less experienced daily paid teachers.[cii] [ciii] [civ]
The incorporation of Syrian teachers will require the Jordanian government and particularly DOML to make alterations to the list of sectors that Syrians are allowed to work in. It will also require careful work on the part of the DOE to figure out a training and certification program to affirm the qualifications and acceptability of refugee applicants to teach according to the Jordanian system. The precedent for such a policy was set by the inclusion of refugees with medical experience, many of them women, in the health care sector to meet the heightened demand for services brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.[cv] Critical to this new policy will be emphasizing and encouraging the inclusion of female teachers.
b. Training and Skills Development
Another way to resolve the issue of skills and training mismatch as a barrier to Syrian women’s employment is to create a training program focused on in-demand job skills. There are many organizations and government departments engaged in trying to do this, all coordinated under the auspices of the DMOL.[cvi] [cvii] However, the issue persists. DMOL should work with UNHCR, the ILO, UN Women, General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions (or a CSO like it with the appropriate purview), and refugee women to establish a program that coordinates these efforts.
The resulting program should include regular communication to update lists of needed job skills with an eye towards identifying those that are applicable to a specific geographic location. Efforts must be made to prioritize that those with the greatest familial needs can remain close to home, for example women with dependent children as well as disabled and elderly family members for which they provide primary care. Likewise, training should be subdivided into those jobs that are more likely to allow for part-time, full-time, or flexible work permits. Special attention should also be paid to providing support, training, and regulation for home-based work beyond childcare as Syrian women are known to have engaged informally in catering and traditional Syrian specialties to contribute to their family’s income.[cviii]
It is critical that this program is designed using a mixed methods approach for monitoring and evaluation. Such an approach would ensure that the effectiveness of the training programs will be monitored both through quantitative targets, showing participants success in finding employment, and qualitative targets regarding the collection of survey data from program participants and employers. Through this qualitative element, program staff will be able to track whether the trainings are providing skills in an effective way, whether students are retaining the information, and whether employers see these trainings as providing added value to the available refugee talent pool.
2. Childcare Access
a. Option #1: Access
DOML, UNHCR, ILO, SRAD, JNCW, and the MOL should work together to create more childcare options for refugee women both inside and outside of the camp system. It is important that these options be cost-effective or follow a sliding scale system or childcare credit available to women with work permits and payable starting with their first paycheck.
b. Option #2: Employment Sector
The above listed organizations and departments should work with SADAQA to develop a certification and regulatory system by which Syrian women can gain employment in the childcare sector.[cix] The first hurdle will be getting the GOJ to include childcare as one of the employment sectors open to Syrian refugees as it is presently absent. So doing will help with the lack of childcare professionals and facilities in the country and ultimately assist both Jordanian and Syrian women with their childcare needs.[cx]
Map of Syrian Refugee Dispersion in Jordan; Source: UNHCR Jordan, “Syrian Refugees in Jordan – 31 March 2023,” UNHCR Operational Data Portal (ODP), April 6, 2023,https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/99996.
c. Option #3: Home-Based Childcare
For those refugee women with suitable housing situations, a program should be developed to train and certify them to host home-based childcare facilities in their homes. As the UNHCR map of the dispersion of Syrian refugees in Jordan shows, refugees predominate in the north of the country with 83% living in urban areas outside of the refugee camps as of 2018.[cxi] Home-based childcare allows women, particularly those with children of their own to watch, to gain an income from home. Such programs are not unheard of.
One program in Durban, South Africa, which engaged Syrian refugee women who were interested in child care and in need of employment, to provide such services and saw benefits both for poorer members of the native population in need of child care and other refugee families with the same need.[cxii] The program was found to reap additional benefits for refugee children and their families the stress of acculturation and social isolation of families decreased when children were cared for in a similar cultural environment to that of their home.[cxiii]
It is likely that this option would require a system by which women can apply for grants in order to update their home to meet Jordanian regulatory standards. This program would require the collaboration of the government departments focused on refugee management and domestic regulatory and safety standards as well as IOs like the ILO and UNHCR. Organizations like SADAQA and JNCW will also be vital partners for achieving this program’s success.
3. Eliminating External Pressure
Changing attitudes towards women’s employment and entrepreneurship will require cooperation from employers, refugees, SRAD, JNCW, and the DOML. The following programs are geared toward removing the second great barrier to women’s employment, familial and cultural disapproval. Through training employers to value female employees, male employees to respect their female coworkers, and community and family members to see their employment as a respectable, beneficial, and safe option, progress can be made toward economic inclusion.
a. Gender Mainstreaming Trainings
Building on ILO’s successful gender mainstreaming training for employment service officers in spring of 2023, a plan should be drawn up to incorporate similar trainings into all public and private institutions.[cxiv] Gender mainstreaming training programs will need to become a requirement in all sectors where they are presently absent and must be held regularly for the staff at all government departments and businesses especially those who directly work with refugees. Those entities that already have a program for teaching gender inclusion should consult with the ILO and JNCW to confirm that it lives up to current international and Jordanian legal standards. All trainings will need to include information related to the inclusion of refugee women in the workplace. This recommendation should be carried out through collaboration between the GOJ, ILO, UN Women, and JNCW. The trainings do not need to be an exact copy of the ILO’s example 3-day program. They should instead be designed specifically to meet the resource constraints within each sector and institution.
b. Awareness Raising Campaigns and Community Outreach
UN Women, the ILO, DOML, refugee women, JNCW, and CSOs should work together to create an awareness raising campaign and community outreach program to normalize women’s employment and combat external pressures to it. This campaign should create space for community dialogue, share women’s employment success stories, and educate people about the rights and protections allotted to women in the workplace and in Jordanian society. This includes sharing information about the new protections adopted since 2015 enumerating the rights of women and girls and protecting them from gender-based violence.[cxv]
As suggested by the women themselves, mosques, Imams, and other religious leaders should play a significant role in both programs so that they can use the respect inherent in their positions to counter religion-based opposition.[cxvi] While this program is specifically geared towards refugee women, a partner campaign promoting Jordanian women in the workplace would also be desirable as the rates of unemployment for both groups so closely mirror one another.[cxvii]
Call to Action
Syrian women have an integral role to play in mitigating the effects of the Syrian refugee crisis and the Jordanian economic downturn. With sufficient access, support, and training they can be an asset to the economy by taking the pressure off hard pressed sectors like education and childcare, while simultaneously contributing to the improvement of gender equality in the country as a whole.
Women are more vulnerable to the risks of poverty and economic exclusion; thus, it is incumbent on the state to ensure that they have the means to provide for themselves, particularly in crisis circumstances where traditional labor divisions are untenable. Doing so will contribute to their own empowerment and facilitate improved circumstances for their families. Some refugee women have already proven themselves willing to face the realities of seeking work in male dominated fields despite the risks and discomfort inherent in it.
Through well-planned programming and inclusion centric policies, Jordan and its international partners can improve their working and living conditions, increase development, and improve gender equality for the entire country. GOJ must accept these women as partners on the path to development, inclusion, and economic stability instead of continuing to relegate them to the status of impoverished dependents.
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———. “Gender Equality and Decent Work in Jordan 2022.” ILO, April 29, 2022. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—arabstates/—ro-beirut/documents/publication/wcms_843959.pdf.
———. “ILO Holds Gender Mainstreaming Training for Employment Service Officers in Jordan.” International Labour Organization, April 3, 2023. https://www.ilo.org/beirut/media-centre/news/WCMS_874902/lang–en/index.htm.
———. “ILO in Jordan, Private Sector Employers Explore Violence and Harassment Prevention.” International Labour Organization, November 22, 2021. https://www.ilo.org/beirut/media-centre/news/WCMS_830252/lang–en/index.htm.
JNCW. “The National Strategy for Women in Jordan 2020-2025.” The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, 2020. https://women.jo/sites/default/files/2023-09/The%20National%20Strategy%20for%20Women%202020%20-%202025.pdf.
MOL. “Foreign_Workers_EN – Ministry of Labor: Directorate of Migrant Labor,” 2024. https://mol.gov.jo/EN/Pages/Foreign_Workers_EN.
MOL. “Syrian Labor – Ministry of Labour.” Ministry of Labor Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, 2023. https://mol.gov.jo/EN/Pages/Syrian_Labor.
Nasrawin, Laith K. “Protection Against Domestic Violence in Jordanian Law and International Conventions on JSTOR.” Arab Law Quarterly 31, no. 4 (2017): 363–87. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26567164.
OECD. “Women’s Political Participation in Jordan.” OECD, 2018. https://www.oecd.org/mena/governance/womens-political-participation-in-jordan.pdf.
Relief International. “Teacher Stories: Shadi and Muteeb – Azraq Refugee Camp, Jordan | INEE.” Inee.org, October 3, 2019. https://inee.org/blog/teacher-stories-shadi-and-muteeb-azraq-refugee-camp-jordan.
Small, Breanna. “‘I Want to Continue to Study’: Barriers to Secondary Education for Syrian Refugee Children in Jordan.” Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch, June 26, 2020. https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/06/26/i-want-continue-study/barriers-secondary-education-syrian-refugee-children-jordan#:~:text=In%20Jordan%2C%20only%20citizens%20are.
Toukan, Dima M. “Localizing Responses to Gender-Based Violence: The Case of Women-Led Community-Based Organizations in Jordan the Case of Women-Led Community-Based Organizations in Jordan on JSTOR.” Daedalus 152, no. 2 (season-01 2023): 167–78. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48728677.
UN. “THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development,” n.d. https://sdgs.un.org/goals.
UNHCR. “Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees,” 1967. https://www.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/legacy-pdf/3b66c2aa10.pdf.
UNHCR Jordan. “Jordan: Livelihoods Dashboard: Economic Inclusion of Syrian Refugees.” UNHCR – Global Focus, September 2023. https://reporting.unhcr.org/jordan-livelihoods-dashboard-5810.
UNHCR Jordan. “Work Permits for Syrian Refugees in Jordan – UNHCR Jordan,” 2023. https://help.unhcr.org/jordan/en/frequently-asked-questions-unhcr/work-permit-syrian-faqs/.
UNHCR Operational Data Portal (ODP). “Syrian Refugees in Jordan – 31 March 2023,” n.d. https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/99996.
UNHCR US. “Jordan Issues Record Number of Work Permits to Syrian Refugees.” UNHCR US, January 25, 2022. https://www.unhcr.org/us/news/news-releases/jordan-issues-record-number-work-permits-syrian-refugees.
UN Volunteers. “Engaging Refugee UN Volunteers as Agents of Change in Jordan.” UNV, June 19, 2022. https://www.unv.org/Success-stories/engaging-refugee-un-volunteers-agents-change-jordan.
UN Volunteers. “Refugee UN Volunteer Medics Join Jordanian COVID-19 Response,” September 17, 2021. https://www.unv.org/news/refugee-un-volunteer-medics-join-jordanian-covid-19-response.
UN Women Jordan. “Women Working: Jordanian and Syrian Refugee Women’s Labour Force Participation and Attitudes Towards Employment.” UN Women, 2017. https://jordan.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Field%20Office%20Jordan/Attachments/publications/JORDANIAN%20AND%20SYRIAN%20REFUGEE.pdf.
Van Raemdonck, Laura. “Comparison of Four Different Livelihood Programmes for Urban Refugee Women in Durban, South Africa: Insights From the Capability Approach.” Journal of International Migration and Integration 20, no. 2 (September 9, 2018): 497–519. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-018-0618-5.
World Economic Forum. “Global Gender Gap Report 2023,” June 20, 2023. https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2023/.
Annex:
1. Key Terms:
| Key Terms | Definition |
| Refugee | Defined by the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol as someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin due to a well-founded fear of persecution as a result of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political view.[cxviii] -In this paper it refers to Syrians unless otherwise specified. |
| Employed | Individuals who are currently employed. |
| Unemployed | Individuals who are without work, currently available for work, and have sought work in the past year.[cxix] |
| IO | International organization |
| IGO | International governmental organization |
| NGO | Non-governmental organization |
| CSO | Civil Society Organization |
| ILO | International Labour Organization |
| UN | The United Nations |
| UN Women | UN organization focused on gender equality, standards creation, and women’s empowerment. |
| UNHCR/UNHCR Jordan | UN Refugee Agency: the UN agency responsible for running refugee camps. UNHCR Jordan: the Jordanian branch. |
| GOJ | Government of Jordan |
| DMOL | Ministry of Labour – Directorate of Migrant Labour |
| SRAD | Jordanian Public Security Directorate – Syrian Refugees Affairs Directorate: responsible for security inside Syrian refugee camps. Responsible for issuing MOI. |
| MOI | Ministry of Interior – Service card issued by the MOI required for refugees work permit applications.[cxx] |
| MPWH | Ministry of Public Work and Housing |
| MOE | Jordanian Ministry of Education |
| MOH | Jordanian Ministry of Health |
| MOL | Jordanian Ministry of Labour |
| JNCW | The Jordanian National Commission for Women is a semi-governmental committee and reference authority working on women’s affairs.[cxxi] |
| JNSW | Jordanian National Strategy for Women in Jordan (2020-2025) |
| SDGs | The 17 Sustainable Development Goals agreed upon by all UN member states in 2015 for the promotion of peace and prosperity.[cxxii] |
[i] Juline Beaujouan and Amjed Rasheed, “Syrian Crisis, Syrian Refugees,” in Syrian Crisis, Syrian Refugees: Voices from Jordan and Lebanon, ed. Juline Beaujouan and Amjed Rasheed (Springer Nature, 2019), 7–25, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35016-1_2, 12-13.
[ii] Anoush Ehteshami, “Forward,” in Syrian Crisis, Syrian Refugees: Voices from Jordan and Lebanon, ed. Juline Beaujouan and Amjed Rasheed (Palgrave Pivot, 2019), v–vi.
[iii] Juline Beaujouan and Amjed Rasheed, “An Overview of the Syrian Refugee Crisis in Lebanon and Its Socio-Economic Impact,” in Springer eBooks, 2019, 35–46, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35016-1_4, 35.
[iv] Juline Beaujouan and Amjed Rasheed, “The Syrian Refugee Policy of the Jordanian Government,” in Springer eBooks, 2019, 47–63, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35016-1_5, 57.
[v] Beaujouan and Rasheed, “The Syrian Refugee Policy of the Jordanian Government,” 54–55.
[vi] Kareem Chehayeb, “UN Agency Slashes Cash Aid to Syrian Refugees in Jordan, Raising the Alarm on Its Funding Crunch | AP News,” AP News, July 19, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/jordan-syrian-refugees-aid-un-52f9fde0a559775a995c903c2dca8643.
[vii] UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” Jordanian and Syrian Refugee Women’s Labour Force Participation and Attitudes Towards Employment (UN Women, 2017), https://jordan.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Field%20Office%20Jordan/Attachments/publications/JORDANIAN%20AND%20SYRIAN%20REFUGEE.pdf, 1.
[viii] Cevdet Acu, “A Double Crisis: The Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 on Syrian Refugee Women in Jordan,” Third World Quarterly 44, no. 6 (February 16, 2023): 1101–18, https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2023.2175657, 1103.
[ix] ILO, “Assess Access to Child Care Services and Facilities for Jordanian and Syrian Garment Workers in Al-Hassan Industrial Estate / Irbid” (ILO, December 7, 2022), https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—arabstates/—ro-beirut/documents/publication/wcms_863507.pdf, 6.
[x] The data in this table is drawn from the most recent documentation found from UNHCR on registered refugees economic inclusion in Jordan. It is based on a total registered refugee population of 653,868, which differs slightly from the number used in other cited documents. It was deemed acceptable to include demographic data that reflects slightly different time periods in order to provide a general context for the populations needs and distribution. Particularly as the total registered population between the 2020 and 2023 datasets referred to in this document remain between approximately 650,000 and 670,000. The citation for this September 2023 data is: UNHCR Jordan, “Jordan: Livelihoods Dashboard: Economic Inclusion of Syrian Refugees,” UNHCR – Global Focus, September 2023, https://reporting.unhcr.org/jordan-livelihoods-dashboard-5810.
[xi] Lucia Hanmer et al., How Does Poverty Differ Among Refugees? Taking a Gender Lens to the Data on Syrian Refugees in Jordan, World Bank, Washington, DC eBooks, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-8616, 6.
[xii] Acu, “A Double Crisis: The Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 on Syrian Refugee Women in Jordan,” 1103.
[xiii] Beaujouan and Rasheed, “Syrian Crisis, Syrian Refugees,” 16.
[xiv] Beaujouan and Rasheed, “Syrian Crisis, Syrian Refugees,” 16.
[xv] Wa’ed Alshoubaki, “The Dynamics of Population Pressure in Jordan: A Focus on Syrian Refugees,” in Syrian Crisis, Syrian Refugees: Voices from Jordan and Lebanon, ed. Amjed Rasheed and Juline Beaujouan (London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), 32-33.
[xvi] Alshoubaki, “The Dynamics of Population Pressure in Jordan: A Focus on Syrian Refugees,” 30
[xvii] Beaujouan and Rasheed, “The Syrian Refugee Policy of the Jordanian Government,” 57.
[xviii] Human Rights Watch, “‘We’re Afraid For Their Future’” (Human Rights Watch, March 28, 2023), https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/08/16/were-afraid-their-future/barriers-education-syrian-refugee-children-jordan.
[xix] Bengtsson et al., “Teacher Management in Refugee Settings: Public Schools in Jordan,” 25.
[xx] UNHCR Jordan, “Jordan: Livelihoods Dashboard: Economic Inclusion of Syrian Refugees.”
[xxi] UNHCR US, “Jordan Issues Record Number of Work Permits to Syrian Refugees,” UNHCR US, January 25, 2022, https://www.unhcr.org/us/news/news-releases/jordan-issues-record-number-work-permits-syrian-refugees.
[xxii] The 403,358 total number of work permits includes those issued for part, full, and temporary work and is not meant to imply that all working age refugees currently posses a work permit. UNHCR Jordan, “Jordan: Livelihoods Dashboard: Economic Inclusion of Syrian Refugees.”
[xxiii] UNHCR Jordan, “Jordan: Livelihoods Dashboard: Economic Inclusion of Syrian Refugees.”
[xxiv] Data in this table is based on a total population, which includes people of all ages living the country except refugees who are not permanently settled in Jordan. Therefore, this data shows us the gender parity in Jordan, but excluding Syrian refugees and other non-permanent refugee communities. “Global Gender Gap Report 2023,” World Economic Forum, June 20, 2023, https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-gender-gap-report-2023/, 68.
[xxv] Score is on a scale with 0 as the low and 1 as the high. “Global Gender Gap Report 2023,” 11.
[xxvi] “Global Gender Gap Report 2023,” 17.
[xxvii] “Global Gender Gap Report 2023,” 219.
[xxviii] “Global Gender Gap Report 2023,” 17.
[xxix] ILO, “Gender Equality and Decent Work in Jordan 2022” (ILO, April 29, 2022), https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—arabstates/—ro-beirut/documents/publication/wcms_843959.pdf, 2.
[xxx] ILO, “Gender Equality and Decent Work in Jordan 2022,” 2.
[xxxi] ILO, “Gender Equality and Decent Work in Jordan 2022,” 2.
[xxxii] UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 1.
[xxxiii] UN, “THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development,” n.d., https://sdgs.un.org/goals.
[xxxiv] ILO, “Gender Equality and Decent Work in Jordan 2022,” 2.
[xxxv] UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 2, 19-22 .
[xxxvi] UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 2-5.
[xxxvii] The focus group discussions were meant to flush out the responses made to the quantitative phone interviews. UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 2-5.
[xxxviii] UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 2.
[xxxix] UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 19-22.
[xl] UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 44.
[xli] UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 20.
[xlii] Focused on obstacles of greatest concern to Syrian refugee women specifically. UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 19-22.
[xliii] UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 19-22.
[xliv] Acu, “A Double Crisis: The Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 on Syrian Refugee Women in Jordan,” 1107-1108.
[xlv] Hanmer et al., How Does Poverty Differ Among Refugees? Taking a Gender Lens to the Data on Syrian Refugees in Jordan, 9.
[xlvi] UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 19-20.
[xlvii] UNHCR US, “Jordan Issues Record Number of Work Permits to Syrian Refugees.”
[xlviii] Acu, “A Double Crisis: The Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 on Syrian Refugee Women in Jordan,” 1107-1108.
[xlix] Two of Jordan’s main refugee camps are Azraq and Za’atari, which are located in remote areas with few nearby industries for refugees to engage in. Acu, “A Double Crisis: The Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 on Syrian Refugee Women in Jordan,” 1109.
[l] Dima M. Toukan, “Localizing Responses to Gender-Based Violence: The Case of Women-Led Community-Based Organizations in Jordan the Case of Women-Led Community-Based Organizations in Jordan on JSTOR,” Daedalus 152, no. 2 (season-01 2023): 167–78, https://www.jstor.org/stable/48728677, 170.
[li] The study looks at data collected through in-person interviews in Jordan, the town of Al-Husn, and Israel, Majd-al-Krum, Rami, and Shefaram in Israel. Al-Husn is a minority majority community and, though it does not specifically address the experience of refugees or Syrian refugees, it supports the results of UN Women’s study among the Jordanian and Syrian community and suggests issues that are common to the public transportation and cultural systems in the country. These are unlikely to change depending on your community with the slight caveat that they may be even more difficult to overcome for a community that is as marginalized as Syrian refugees are in the state. Wafa Elias, “Gender, Mobility, and Socio-Economic Differences Among Arab Communities in Jordan and Israel,” Case Studies on Transport Policy 10, no. 4 (December 1, 2022): 2420–29, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cstp.2022.11.005, 2422. UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 14.
[lii] Elias, “Gender, Mobility, and Socio-Economic Differences Among Arab Communities in Jordan and Israel,”, 2428.
[liii] Elias, “Gender, Mobility, and Socio-Economic Differences Among Arab Communities in Jordan and Israel,” 2427-2428.
[liv] ILO, “ILO in Jordan, Private Sector Employers Explore Violence and Harassment Prevention,” International Labour Organization, November 22, 2021, https://www.ilo.org/beirut/media-centre/news/WCMS_830252/lang–en/index.htm.
[lv] ILO, “ILO in Jordan, Private Sector Employers Explore Violence and Harassment Prevention.”
[lvi] Hanmer et al., How Does Poverty Differ Among Refugees? Taking a Gender Lens to the Data on Syrian Refugees in Jordan, 9.
[lvii] ILO, “Gender Equality and Decent Work in Jordan 2022,” 11.
[lviii] ILO, “Gender Equality and Decent Work in Jordan 2022,” 11.
[lix] ILO, “ILO Holds Gender Mainstreaming Training for Employment Service Officers in Jordan,” International Labour Organization, April 3, 2023, https://www.ilo.org/beirut/media-centre/news/WCMS_874902/lang–en/index.htm.
[lx] ILO, “Gender Equality and Decent Work in Jordan 2022,” 14.
[lxi] Acu, “A Double Crisis: The Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 on Syrian Refugee Women in Jordan,” 1114.
[lxii] Laith K. Nasrawin, “Protection Against Domestic Violence in Jordanian Law and International Conventions on JSTOR,” Arab Law Quarterly 31, no. 4 (2017): 363–87, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26567164, 364.
[lxiii] Nasrawin, “Protection Against Domestic Violence in Jordanian Law and International Conventions on JSTOR,” 374-375.
[lxiv] Acu, “A Double Crisis: The Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 on Syrian Refugee Women in Jordan,” 1113.
[lxv] Nasrawin, “Protection Against Domestic Violence in Jordanian Law and International Conventions on JSTOR,” 375.
[lxvi] “World Report 2022: Rights Trends in Jordan,” Human Rights Watch, January 13, 2022, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/jordan.
[lxvii] JNCW, “The National Strategy for Women in Jordan 2020-2025” (The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, 2020), https://women.jo/sites/default/files/2023-09/The%20National%20Strategy%20for%20Women%202020%20-%202025.pdf, 30.
[lxviii] UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 21-22.
[lxix] UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 20.
[lxx] UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 20.
[lxxi] UNHCR US, “Jordan Issues Record Number of Work Permits to Syrian Refugees.”
[lxxii] UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 10-11.
[lxxiii] Hanmer et al., How Does Poverty Differ Among Refugees? Taking a Gender Lens to the Data on Syrian Refugees in Jordan, 2-3, 12.
[lxxiv] Additionally, one third of all Syrian refugee households have a female head of household. Hanmer et al., How Does Poverty Differ Among Refugees? Taking a Gender Lens to the Data on Syrian Refugees in Jordan, 12.
[lxxv] Hanmer et al., How Does Poverty Differ Among Refugees? Taking a Gender Lens to the Data on Syrian Refugees in Jordan, 12-13.
[lxxvi] Acu, “A Double Crisis: The Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 on Syrian Refugee Women in Jordan,” 1107-08.
[lxxvii] Breanna Small, “‘I Want to Continue to Study’: Barriers to Secondary Education for Syrian Refugee Children in Jordan,” Human Rights Watch (Human Rights Watch, June 26, 2020), https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/06/26/i-want-continue-study/barriers-secondary-education-syrian-refugee-children-jordan#:~:text=In%20Jordan%2C%20only%20citizens%20are.
[lxxviii] UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 10.
[lxxix] UN Volunteers, “Engaging Refugee UN Volunteers as Agents of Change in Jordan,” UNV, June 19, 2022, https://www.unv.org/Success-stories/engaging-refugee-un-volunteers-agents-change-jordan.
[lxxx] Human Rights Watch, “‘We’re Afraid For Their Future.’”
[lxxxi] Human Rights Watch, “‘We’re Afraid For Their Future.’”
[lxxxii] UNHCR US, “Jordan Issues Record Number of Work Permits to Syrian Refugees.”
[lxxxiii] Hanmer et al., How Does Poverty Differ Among Refugees? Taking a Gender Lens to the Data on Syrian Refugees in Jordan, 10.
[lxxxiv] ILO, “Assess Access to Child Care Services and Facilities for Jordanian and Syrian Garment Workers in Al-Hassan Industrial Estate / Irbid,” 2-5.
[lxxxv] ILO, “Assess Access to Child Care Services and Facilities for Jordanian and Syrian Garment Workers in Al-Hassan Industrial Estate / Irbid,” 2-3.
[lxxxvi] ILO, “Assess Access to Child Care Services and Facilities for Jordanian and Syrian Garment Workers in Al-Hassan Industrial Estate / Irbid,” 2-5.
[lxxxvii] ILO, “Assess Access to Child Care Services and Facilities for Jordanian and Syrian Garment Workers in Al-Hassan Industrial Estate / Irbid,” 3.
[lxxxviii] Anne Marie Baylouny, When Blame Backfires : Syrian Refugees and Citizen Grievances in Jordan and Lebanon, 2020, https://cornellup.degruyter.com/view/title/575846, 1-4.
[lxxxix] Alshoubaki, “The Dynamics of Population Pressure in Jordan: A Focus on Syrian Refugees,” 49.
[xc] Alshoubaki, “The Dynamics of Population Pressure in Jordan: A Focus on Syrian Refugees,” 29-30.
[xci] Baylouny, When Blame Backfires : Syrian Refugees and Citizen Grievances in Jordan and Lebanon, 1-4.
[xcii] Baylouny, When Blame Backfires : Syrian Refugees and Citizen Grievances in Jordan and Lebanon, 7.
[xciii] Chehayeb, “UN Agency Slashes Cash Aid to Syrian Refugees in Jordan, Raising the Alarm on Its Funding Crunch | AP News.”
[xciv] Second shift education refers to a program by which more students attend school, because the day is cut in half with Syrian students attending later in the day as a part of the second shift. Small, “‘I Want to Continue to Study’: Barriers to Secondary Education for Syrian Refugee Children in Jordan.”
[xcv] Small, “‘I Want to Continue to Study’: Barriers to Secondary Education for Syrian Refugee Children in Jordan.”
[xcvi] Relief International, “Teacher Stories: Shadi and Muteeb – Azraq Refugee Camp, Jordan | INEE,” Inee.org, October 3, 2019, https://inee.org/blog/teacher-stories-shadi-and-muteeb-azraq-refugee-camp-jordan.
[xcvii] ILO, “Assess Access to Child Care Services and Facilities for Jordanian and Syrian Garment Workers in Al-Hassan Industrial Estate / Irbid,” 6.
[xcviii] Stephanie Bengtsson et al., “Teacher Management in Refugee Settings:Public Schools in Jordan,” UNESDOC Digital Library (UNESDOC Digital Library, 2021), https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379193/PDF/379193eng.pdf.multi, 13.
[xcix] Bengtsson et al., “Teacher Management in Refugee Settings:Public Schools in Jordan,” 13.
[c] Ghalia Ghawi and Khawla Hattab – Ministry of Education, “Teachers of Refugees” (Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development, January 17, 2021), https://www.qrf.org/en/what-we-do/research-and-publications/teachers-refugees.
[ci] Bengtsson et al., “Teacher Management in Refugee Settings:Public Schools in Jordan,” 70.
[cii] UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 10-11.
[ciii] Hanmer et al., How Does Poverty Differ Among Refugees? Taking a Gender Lens to the Data on Syrian Refugees in Jordan, 2-3, 12.
[civ] Small, “‘I Want to Continue to Study’: Barriers to Secondary Education for Syrian Refugee Children in Jordan.”
[cv] “Refugee UN Volunteer Medics Join Jordanian COVID-19 Response,” UN Volunteers, September 17, 2021, https://www.unv.org/news/refugee-un-volunteer-medics-join-jordanian-covid-19-response.
[cvi] DMOL has the task of decreasing the refugee unemployment rate, coordinating employment efforts between civil society and the government, and enforcing Jordanian labor laws. Among those they coordinate with are the ILO, the Refugee Camp Administrators (within Azraq Refugee Camp), CARE International, and UNHCR. “Foreign_Workers_EN – Ministry of Labor: Directorate of Migrant Labor,” MOL, 2024, https://mol.gov.jo/EN/Pages/Foreign_Workers_EN.
[cvii] Christopher Herwig, “A scene from the ‘Oasis Center for Resilience and Empowerment of Women and Girls’ operated by UN Women in the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan,” ReliefWeb (UN Women, August 10, 2018), https://reliefweb.int/report/jordan/empowerment-through-employment-syrian-refugee-women-jordan.
[cviii] Hanmer et al., How Does Poverty Differ Among Refugees? Taking a Gender Lens to the Data on Syrian Refugees in Jordan, 10.
[cix] SADAQA is a Jordanian CSO seeking the implementation of a national framework for childcare facilities and working to increase education and training in the childcare sector. ILO, “Gender Equality and Decent Work in Jordan 2022,” 6.
[cx] ILO, “Assess Access to Child Care Services and Facilities for Jordanian and Syrian Garment Workers in Al-Hassan Industrial Estate / Irbid,” 2-5.
[cxi] Hanmer et al., How Does Poverty Differ Among Refugees? Taking a Gender Lens to the Data on Syrian Refugees in Jordan, 2-6.
[cxii] Laura Van Raemdonck, “Comparison of Four Different Livelihood Programmes for Urban Refugee Women in Durban, South Africa: Insights From the Capability Approach,” Journal of International Migration and Integration 20, no. 2 (September 9, 2018): 497–519, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-018-0618-5, 502.
[cxiii] Van Raemdonck, “Comparison of Four Different Livelihood Programmes for Urban Refugee Women in Durban, South Africa: Insights From the Capability Approach,” 502-503.
[cxiv] ILO, “ILO Holds Gender Mainstreaming Training for Employment Service Officers in Jordan.”
[cxv] JNCW, “The National Strategy for Women in Jordan 2020-2025,” 20.
[cxvi] UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,”20.
[cxvii] UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 6.
[cxviii] UNHCR, “Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees,” 1967, https://www.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/legacy-pdf/3b66c2aa10.pdf, 2,14-16.
[cxix] As defined by the ILO. UN Women Jordan, “Women Working,” 15.
[cxx] “Work Permits for Syrian Refugees in Jordan – UNHCR Jordan.”
[cxxi] OECD, “Women’s Political Participation in Jordan” (OECD, 2018), https://www.oecd.org/mena/governance/womens-political-participation-in-jordan.pdf, 5.
[cxxii] UN, “THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development.”
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