COVID-19 and its Toll on Women in Jordan

COVID-19 was an unprecedented crisis that emerged in unexpected circumstances. This pandemic necessitated a change in priorities worldwide,  with people compelled to come together in solidarity and unite all their efforts to support the health sector and save lives.

This pandemic goes beyond the definition of a crisis. Its impact has spread to affect all sectors of life. It also revealed the flaws and fragility of these sectors. The impact of COVID-19 on women and girls is on the rise. This impact is vivid in the health, the economic, the security and, the social protection sectors. This is due to numerous reasons and considerations, particularly that women and girls suffer double the effects since they earn less and have fewer savings due to them holding insecure jobs and being closer to the poverty line.

When we discuss Jordanian women's reality, we cannot isolate it from their experiences before the pandemic. Due to the fragility of  their economic, social, cultural, political, health and psychological integration, their lives have been full of challenges and difficulties. Their problems have become complicated, which has led to suffering the worst consequences of this pandemic. In general, the pandemic demonstrated the fragility of women's economic resources, the weakness of their social protection, and the inadequacy of economic and public health policies. Jordan remains at the bottom of the Global Gender Gap Index in terms of economic participation, political empowerment, education and health.

Why are women hit harder?

• Women earn less.
• Women have less savings. Women own less property/assets
• Women form the largest part of the informal labour market
• Women have less access to protection programmes
• Women burdened with unpaid work drop out of the labour force
• Women can be single-parents
• Women suffered largest proportion of layoffs and wage cuts
• Women did not receive sufficient essential healthcare services
• Women victims of domestic violence are forced to stay with abusers

The Economic Reality of Jordanian Women during COVID-19

The Jordanian government declared a state of emergency as part of a series of preventative measures to limit the spread of COVID-19. A Royal decree was issued in March 2020 to activate the 1992 "Defence Law No. 2." This issue was critical to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, but it mainly affected women. Limiting women's economic participation has lessened their chance of securing decent jobs worsening their financial insecurity.

Due to the pandemic, indicators show that the Jordanian economy contracted by 2.2 per cent in the third quarter of 2020, the worst economic slowdown in Jordan since 1993. This means that the decline in economic conditions and the contraction of the Jordanian economy have led to an increase in unemployment. According to the Department of Statistics, by the third quarter of 2020, the female unemployment rate was 33.6 per cent, a 6.1 per cent rise since the outbreak. Women have also suffered the largest share of layoffs and wage cuts. Moreover, due to the closure of schools, nurseries and kindergartens, many women had no choice but to quit their jobs to stay with their children without any financial support.

Attorney Inaam Al-Asha, the legal advisor at Sisterhood is Global Institute (SIGI) confirmed that the economic violations that occurred during the pandemic are more visible on women than their male counterparts. This issue prompted women to quit their jobs and give up their dues and rights by submitting “forced” resignations.  Rania Hayouk, the Executive Director of the National Association for Family Empowerment, highlighted the high incidence of economic violations in the case of depriving women of their inheritance. The closure of courts was used as an argument in depriving women of their right of inheritance. The issue of economic violations and weak economic security for women is a pre-COVID issue, and the pandemic has further revealed the depth of the problem confirming the weak economic participation of women and their possession of money and property.  Moreover, a larger percentage of women have no choice but to earn a living in the informal labour market. SIGI indicated that during the pandemic women - especially those who head their families - lost their informal work while caring for house chores and children studying remotely.

The Social Reality of Jordanian Women During COVID-19

The pandemic has shed light on the importance of combating violence against women and amending protection measures.  It has been shown that in times of crisis, negative behaviours tend to increase. Defence orders no. 2 and 3 affected victims of domestic violence indirectly, as they had to stay locked in with their abusers. According to a World Health Organisation report entitled: "Covid-19 and Violence against Women in the Eastern Mediterranean Region", violence against women often rises in states of emergencies, particularly epidemics. The report also states that The Eastern Mediterranean Region has the second-highest prevalence of violence against women worldwide (37 per cent).  Women's subjugation to violence is intensified by psychological stress, the disintegration of social and protection networks and reduced access to services.

The pandemic put forth frightening consequences, especially during a time where the protection services provided to women are inadequate. The domestic violence shelters that provided women with the necessary protection were one of the sectors that closed after the outbreak. Due to the closure of these shelters, women remained in these harsh conditions. The figures released by Jordan’s Ministry of Social Development show that the Social Service Office in the Family Protection department handled approximately 10,750 cases of domestic violence in 2020. Meanwhile, cases during the lockdown amounted to 1785, 43 of which were taken to domestic violence shelters. Noha Mehrez, a consultant to the Women Helping Women Network, added that the cases of violence against women increased by 33 per cent during the pandemic.

The Reality of Jordanian Women’s Health During COVID-19

Women's health was also affected by the imposed lockdowns and restrictions as they did not receive healthcare services that were proportionately sufficient to their situation. Biologically, women have specific healthcare needs such as reproductive healthcare, maternity care, and family planning methods. Their access to these services is one of their intrinsic rights, and curfew measures deprived them of these rights. The President of the Independent Health Workers' Union, Dr Khuloud Al Momani, indicated that 80 to 85 per cent of female health workers have tested positive for the coronavirus. Hence, female health workers have been living in fear and anxiety about spreading the virus to their families.

The lockdowns and curfews affected the reproductive health services provided to women, despite all the recommendations presented by the World Health Organisation. The WHO stated the necessity of providing essential health care services to women, especially pregnant women by conducting examinations to ensure their safety and the safety of their babies. The number of "COVID Babies" has also gone up as a result of the difficulty in obtaining contraceptives.

Violations that were not considered

This pandemic caused the biggest interruption to education in modern history. From primary to tertiary education, it has had an extensive effect on students and teachers globally. This interruption starkly shows the gender imbalance in unpaid domestic work and care roles, which directly deepens the existing inequality work distribution between the sexes and doubles the inconvenience. Women before the pandemic did thrice as much housework compared to men. The wheel of power and authority ends up turning within the cultural stereotype depicting them in a graver authoritarian way. UN Deputy Secretary-General warns of concerns about the growing gender inequality gap that exists in Arab countries, saying: The pandemic could lead to a setback in women's rights that lasts for decades.

Women work long hours in the health sector as doctors and nurses to deal with the pandemic. In the educational sector, as teachers or administrators, in addition to the fact that they make up most of the employees in the service sector taking on jobs such as cleaners and food preparers. As mothers, they take on the responsibility to follow up with children during remote learning. Thus, duties and responsibilities are placed on women and are becoming more intense when they are the breadwinners in cases of divorce, widowhood, and in the cases of caring for the elderly and people with disabilities. Many women are thus living under stress, health frustration, anxiety, tension, depression, and pessimism about the future.

Recommendations

In light of this crisis, moving towards social justice, activating and streamlining social, health and economic protection programmes for women is vital.  It is imperative to develop gender-sensitive economic policies by placing women at the forefront of economic recovery and development plans, and by providing financial support to the informal sector and entrepreneurial projects run by women.

It is necessary to strengthen social protection programmes for women by activating safety nets, providing them with a national hotline, providing social protection measures for women working in the informal labour sector, and issuing work licenses for their businesses. The provision of health care to women must be monitored to ensure continued receipt of maternal, child care and family planning services, in addition to psychological support services.