Essay: Jordanian women’s political participation

Methodology
Since this study is a survey study , the descriptive analytical approach was the suitable research  method. This method was used in order to analyze the participants’ perspectives on the political empowerment of Jordanian women in the context of human rights legislations.
Study Sample and tool
The study population was limited to women, living in Amman, 18 years of age and older; which is the legal age in Jordan. The researcher chose Amman area because it was difficult for her to carry out surveys in all the governorates due to her work status. Three regions in the capital were chosen to carry out the surveys which are: University district, Amman district and Wadi al Seer .
The sample participants were randomly chosen according to population size through which the share of University district was 120 cases, the Amman district share was 90 cases, and Wadi al Seer share was 90 cases. In the same way the numbers of the streets of each of the three regions were also chosen randomly, odd numbers of buildings and houses were selected in order to reach women of all social classes.
As for the study tool, a questionnaire was developed and distributed by the researcher for the purpose of collecting the needed data, in order to measure the political empowerment of Jordanian women in the context of human rights legislations.
The development of questionnaire was in consultation with the advisor; who in turn introduced it to a group of professors at the Faculty of Political Science and Women’s studies to assess the degree of comprehensiveness and accuracy of the questionnaire. The researcher took into consideration the opinions of the arbitrators in several ways, including the reformulation of some paragraphs, as well as deleting and adding some other by the supervisor and arbitrators.
This questionnaire consisted of two parts:
Part One: includes of the following demographical variables: (age, educational level, monthly income, marital status, party and social institutes membership).
Part Two: contains four sections, each section composed of several statements as follows:
– Section One: Correspondence of the Jordanian legislations related to women’s rights with the international agreements on women’s empowerment, and is composed of paragraphs numbered from (1-8).
– Section Two: The impact of the Jordanian legislations on the political empowerment of Jordanian women, and is composed of paragraphs numbered from (9-17).
– Section Three: The economic challenges which affect the political empowerment of Jordanian women, and is composed of paragraphs numbered from (18-28).
– Section Four: The Cultural and social challenges which affect the political empowerment of the Jordanian women, and is composed of paragraphs numbered from (29-37) paragraphs.
Reliability Test:
The (Test) and (Retest) methods were used in order to prove the reliability of the tool; it was first applied and then reapplied after two weeks on 20  women not included in the sample and the Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated each time regarding each aspect of the study and its tool. The overall reliability coefficient of the tool reached (0.84).
Statistical procedures:
The questionnaires returned and used were 298 out of 300; the other 6 questionnaires were disregarded because they did not serve the study.
The data collected through the questionnaires was evaluated and analyzed based on a     5- point Likert-style scale ranging from 5 (strongly agree) to 1 (strongly disagree). Then the following equation (N-1) / 3 were used to determine the step between each three levels, (5-1) / 4 = 1.33 then the following scale was used to classify the mean values:
1.00 – 2.33            Low Level
2.34 – 3.67           Moderate Level
3.68 – 5.00           High Level
The study used statistical packages for social sciences (SPSS) in statistical treatment in order to answer the study questions and test its hypothesis according to the following statistical treatments:
1- Frequencies and percentages formula to describe the study sample characteristics (variables), arithmetic means and standard deviations to answer the study questions.
2- Cronbach alpha coefficient Pearson correlation coefficient to measure the constancy of the study aspects.
3- T-Test to identify the differences between the averages.
4- Test analysis of variance (ANOVA) to demonstrate the differences in the sample responses.
Definition of the terms
There are four main terms that are needed to be defined for clarity of understanding. These terms are: Women’s Empowerment, Women’s Political Empowerment, Human Rights and Legislations.
Women’s Empowerment: is “Investing in women’s capabilities and empowering them to exercise their choices is not only valuable in itself but is also the surest way to contribute to economic growth and overall development (UN, 1995) or it is “women and girls acquire the power to act freely, exercise their rights, and fulfill their potential as full and equal members of society. While empowerment often comes from within, and individuals empower themselves, cultures, societies, and institutions create conditions that facilitate or undermine the possibilities for empowerment.” (USAID, 2012).
Women’s Political Empowerment:  According to (Sundström et al., 2012) definition it is “a process of increasing capacity for women, leading to greater choice, agency, and participation in societal decision-making. Our definition is three dimensional, capturing the three most prominent strands in thinking on empowerment: that of choice, that of agency, and that of participation”.
Human Rights: “Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible” (OHCHR)
Legislations: “refers to the actual law enacted by a legislative body at the national, state, or local level. There has been some very odd legislation over the years. In one state it was illegal to kiss on a train; in another, it was illegal to take a bath on Sunday. The sweeping legislation made radical changes to tax law, health care, and immigration law” (vocabulary.com)
Structure of the thesis
The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one includes the introduction. Chapter two includes the historical background and theoretical framework. Chapter three includes displaying the results of the study. Chapter four includes discussion and analysis of the results and chapter five includes the conclusion and recommendations.
Chapter Two
Historical Background and Theoretical Framework
This chapter sheds light on the history of Jordanian women’s political empowerment, elaborating the main factors affecting it, and then concentrating on the most important theories and perspectives which dealt with the empowerment of women as stated in international declarations and Jordanian laws from different point of views.
Historical Background
Jordanian women played a positive role in the public life since 1921 through establishing charitable associations which had a major role in raising awareness, providing educational and health services, in addition to looking after poor families.
Women’s participation in the Jordanian society started to rise in the early fifties of the twentieth century and completed to grow for many years, in numerous fields such as education, employment, and political participation. Women have been able to confirm their roles as partners through taking part in leadership positions. They have been assigned in parliaments, governmental occupations, municipal councils, trade unions, and political parties.
In 1954, The Union of Arab women in Jordan was established, it played an important role in increasing the political awareness of women, the union demanded political rights for Jordanian women. (Khawaldeh, 2014) In 1955, the Council of Ministers issued a decision to approve the draft of election law; which allowed women who have completed elementary education the right to vote but not to run for elections. In 1974, Women were granted the right of nomination and election for the first time when his Majesty King Hussein addressed a letter to the prime minister describing that Jordanian women were eligible for participating in the democratic life. However, this right has not been exercised due to the freezing of the political life which took place in the same year. (Ghawanmeh and Shra’ah, 2007)
In 1978, Jordan found the National Consultative Council to fill the constitutional gap that occurred. Three women were assigned at the time of establishment, women’s participation formed between 5% and 6.7% in its three sessions which was held between the years 1978 and 1984 as the first official post for women in the executive authority, confirming the real concern of the government on implementing women’s empowerment. (Al- Muqdad, 2004) In 1984, the resumption of parliamentary life was confirmed. Accordingly, the National Consultative Council was dissolved.
The reappearance of the parliamentary life and democracy gave women confidence of having the opportunity to enter the political life, 12 women ran for elections in 1989 but none of them succeeded. Yet, that did not prevent the involvement of women in the 1993 elections. Although women’s participation in that year was low, it ended with the victory of Tojan Faisal who won through the quota system for minorities and made access for women to the lower house for the first time in Jordan. In 1997, 17 women candidates ran for the parliamentary elections but none of them won. In 2003, after the amendment of the election law no.34 of the year 2001, 6 seats out of 110 were allocated for women, the 6 women who made it to the lower house, won through the quota system not through competition. Four years later, in 2007 seven women made it to the parliament, six of them won through the quota system, whereas the seventh won the seat through direct competition. In 2010 when the lower house seats was raised from 110 to 120 the number of seats for women was raised to 12 which made 12 women win through quota and one through direct competition. In 2013, 18 women reached to the lower house 15 women though quota, two through their constituencies and one through the national list. In 2016, in the 18th parliament, for the very first time in Jordan 20 women won the elections. 15 women won through quota and 5 women made it through competition. (Al-ghad, 2016) According to the classification of the IPU (International Parliamentary Union) Jordan came in the 10th place among Arab countries and occupied rank 122nd internationally in terms of the proportion of women’s representation in the parliament.
In regard to women’s participation in the Senate, in 1989 a woman was appointed in the senate for the first time. After that, in 1993 the number of women increased to two women then in 1997 and 2001, three women were appointed (Al Shalabi and Al Asad, 2012).   Later, in 2003 the number of female senates was raised to seven women (12.7% of the Council’s total number). That was close to the world average proportion (14.5%) of women in parliaments and legislative bodies. (Jaibi, 2007). Then in 2009, “Women’s Participation witnessed a qualitative jump represented in raising the number of the Senate female members to (9), a percentage of % 15, and thus Jordan occupied rank 5 on the level of the Arabic countries in terms of the number of women in the Parliament” (Dababneh, 2012) in 2016, the latest upper house included 10 women out of 65 members, a percentage of % 15.38. Women’s participation witnessed an improvement in the legislative authority. (Al Rai, 2016)
In conformity with the international development, Jordanian women held governmental positions; women were hired as ministers, Mrs. Ina’am Al-Mufti was assigned as the Minister of Social Development in 1980 and was followed by appointing Mrs. Leila Sharaf the Minister of Information in 1984. Moreover, Mrs. Rima Khalaf was appointed the Minister of Industry and Trade in 1993, Minister of Planning in 1995 and deputy prime minister and minister of planning in 1999, with the highest ministerial post for women in Jordan. Furthermore, Mrs. Tamam Al-Ghoul was assigned as Minister of Social Development in 2000 and then Mrs. Rowaida Al-Ma’ytah for the same ministry in the year 2002. It is worth mentioning that Mr. Faisal Al-Fayez appointed 3 women, forming 15% of its members which was the highest percentage of women’s participation in the history of Jordan.  (Khawaldeh, 2014) In 2005, five women were assigned then in 2006 only one woman was appointed to this position. In the same year when another government was formed it included one woman. Later, in 2007 the number of female ministers rose to four. In 2009, the number of females dropped again to three. In the year 2011 two women were assigned then in the year of 2012 there was no selection for women but there was in the cabinet of 2013 when 3 women out of 27 ministers were assigned. (El kharouf and Jribia, 2016) In 2015, in the second reshuffle of Prime Minister AL. Nsour’s cabinet, the number of women rose to five. On the other hand, the number of women in the executive authority confined to four female ministers in Al Mulqi’s government, and then in the reshuffle the number decreased to two when Mrs. Majd Shoikeh and Mrs. Lina Enab were appointed in the last Cabinet of 2016. The percentage of women’s participation in the Executive authority became 6.8% which is considered low on the Arab and international levels. (Al Rai, 2016)
Concerning women’s participation in the municipal councils, the first municipal council law was created in 1925; however, women were not involved until 1980 when one woman was appointed in the municipal council for the first time. In 1986 a women was reappointed in the greater Amman municipality council. The amendment of municipalities’ law in 1982 allowed women to run for elections. Yet, Jordanian women remained detached from municipal councils, the first participation for them was in 1995 when the Ministry of Municipalities appointed 99 women for different municipal councils in the governorates of the Kingdom (Dababneh, 2012) This improvement demonstrated that women were able to take part in the public life although it was a very modest participation it highly increased when 43 women ran for the municipal councils elections in 1999. Eight women won and 25 women were appointed in different councils in the governorates by the council of ministers. In 2007 the law of municipalities was modified, women were given 20% of the total seats in municipal councils; this has upraised the number of women. (Dababneh, 2012) the municipal law of 2015 kept a quota of 25% of the seats for women (Al Rai, 2016)
Regarding women’s participation in the judiciary, the first woman judge was assigned in 1996. The number of women judges did not exceed 6 women until 1999 then the number increased to 23 in 2003.  “This opened the door for other women to join the judiciary and their number rose to 60 judges in 2010, from 48 in 2009, and 42 in 2008” (Al Shalabi and Al Asad, 2012).  In 2013 women judges were 142 while in 2014 the numbers of women judges were 176 (Al-Madina News, 2015). The number of female judges rose to 189 judges in 2016. Moreover, women were appointed in leading positions in the judiciary such as president of a court and recently a woman was selected to act as a member in the criminal court.
Concerning International Agreements, in 1992, Jordan ratified CEDAW confirming its commitment to promoting Jordanian women’s status along with the government policy on gender equality which contributed to a remarkable bridging of the gap between men and women. For example, female student’s percentage became equal to that of male students by the year 1990 and the percentage of female teachers exceeded that of the male teachers by 37%, in addition to the percentage of illiteracy among females which decreased to 19% knowing that it exceeded 50% in that year 1952.  These facts prove that the Jordanian government has always been concerned about educating women considering it the key to obtaining and practicing their basic rights and the only way towards gender equality regarding all aspects. (Al- Muqdad, 2004)
The involvement of women in political activities came up after a political decision and not because of civil society institutions’ efforts. This might be due to the political circumstances of the region and due to the absence of democracy for long periods, which led to the freezing of the civil society’s institutions (Al-Katib, 2010)
Jordanian women’s participation is still lower than the required level in social, economic and political activities due to the lack of confidence in women’s ability, productivity, and the Challenges that still hinder women’s effective participation on all levels.
 
Challenges Facing Jordanian Women’s Political Participation:
a. Social and Cultural Challenges:
Despite the early rising of women’s issues and gender equality in Jordan. The political empowerment of Jordanian women is still opposed due to cultural and social reasons. Customs and traditions restrict women’s political participation; the limited participation of women in Jordan is due to the patriarchal mentality and subordination of women to men and the control of their life by restricting them only to social and family roles. The community does not accept women’s participation in politics because men tend to exaggerate in over protecting women which limit her participation in the public life. The society also believes that men’s characteristics, political skills, and their ability to communicate are better than women, so they confirm that the political work does not fit the nature of women. (Al- Muqdad, 2004)
b. Economic Challenges:
Although Jordan showed remarkable gender equality in Education and health, however, improvements on the economic level still remain low. Married women are less involved in labor due to their domestic duties. Along with the society’s acceptance for the employment of women in some jobs limits her involvement in the labor market. Some women do not have support from any finance source; they might depend on their husbands or families and some women lack family’s financial aid. The low-income plays a role in women’s participation especially running for elections the campaigns need money and according to some women the most important are the basic needs of life such as education, healthcare and housing so, they prefer to spend money on the basic needs of life. For instance, the political participation of women is highly affected by women’s financial status. The attitudes towards women’s labor are changing but still slowly. (Al- Muqdad, 2004)
c. Legislative and Political Challenges:
There are no constitutional or legal restrictions on women’s political participation in political parties, parliament, government and decision-making positions in Jordan, but there is a gap between the law articles and the authoritarian practices on the society, which negatively affect women. Moreover, customs and traditions restrict women’s political participation. This limited participation of women in Jordan is due to the patriarchal mentality, interconnected with the subordination of women to men, controlling their life by restricting them only to social and family roles, in addition to that, the effectiveness of the women’s organizations is still weak.
This is due to the lack of awareness, the absence of a clear strategy as well as the weak understanding of women’s empowerment concept and the inability to reach all women especially women in rural areas. As well as, the inability to build women’s capabilities and turn them into qualified, trained leaders in order to establish effective organizations. In addition to the shortage in the financial resources needed for these organizations. This requires a construction of an ongoing strategy to provide self -national support and funding to such organizations.
In light of the forgoing, we can briefly explain challenges of Jordanian women’s political participation as follows:
– The social structure of the Jordanian society is based on a traditional patriarchal authority, so regardless all the changes, the traditional social system (family and tribes) are still performing a dominant role in the political participation.
– The Jordanian society is conservative and traditional, based on a system of traditions and customs that by turn provide a picture of women through cultural ideas, which specify that the most appropriate for women, is taking care of her family, while men run political and public positions because Jordanians do not prefer women running such positions.
– The instability and unawareness of Jordanians on political participation in general and the limited experience of Jordanian women in specific caused the exclusion of women from political participation for several decades.
– The weak role of the civil society’s organizations affected the political participation
– The economic subordination of women to men because of their limited economic activity and the possession of economic resources by men affected women’s political participation. (Al- Muqdad, 2004)
Theoretical Framework
Empowerment is a modern concept, which appeared in the late nineties of the twentieth century and spread widely; despite the difference in expanding or narrowing the areas of application, it is important to understand that the concept of empowerment came up to protect the marginalized groups. The term is linked with the word power or giving authority; it is a social process that gives people the ability to control their own lives and the society. This concept is common in many disciplines such as: community development, economics, education, and politics.
Blol, (2009) defined empowerment as the individual’s capacity to become actively involved in economic and social life, that is, having the ability to make a change for the other, who may be an individual or a group or the entire community.
Wallerstein (1992) defined empowerment as a social-action process that supports participation of communities and organizations towards increasing individual and community control, enriched quality of community life, and social justice.
According to Maton and Salem’s paper, (1995) empowerment is a process that enables individuals to achieve their goals by participating with others.