Open lecture on women's economic participation in Jordan, organised by Gender Studies at Södertörn University.

Guest lecture by Dr. Hadeel Boshmaf, associate professor at the Centre for Women’s Studies in Jordan University

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is characterized by its young population, high unemployment rates, and low participation of women in both economic and political sectors. However, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) constitute 95% of its economy. The Global Gender Gap Report for 2020 ranked Jordan 138th out of 153 countries (World Economic Forum 2020), yet this developing country is trying to survive drowning in the gender gap ocean.

Within the economy options that Jordan has, entrepreneurship encouragement has become a vital factor for economic growth. A key question then, is what are the factors that provide an explanation for the slow uptake of government programs promoting female entrepreneurship. Another is whether women’s entrepreneurship accurately offers a potential pathway for increasing women economic participation in the Jordanian context, and whether educated women view entrepreneurship as a preferable option than wage/salaried employment.

To begin to have a deeper understanding of Jordanian women’s economic participation, and in particular what enhances it, what limits it, and what its impact is on the lives of women, this seminar will focuses on Jordanian women’s entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on professional educated women, to provide a complex understanding of how gender power dynamics shape the motivations and outcomes of entrepreneurship for professional women entrepreneurs in Jordan.

This gender power dynamics shape relations and norms governing marriage and motherhood, the interaction of which determine the social construction of gender governing women's roles and responsibilities and engender expectations and ideas concerning acceptable behavior for women and men.