Gender, employment and the life course: The case of working daughters in Amman, Jordan.

This thesis addresses two main gaps within social science research: the relative neglect of the household within general labour market theories and the relative neglect of the impact of life course changes in approaches to female labour force participation. In empirical terms, nowhere is the later gap more clear than the current research on female employment in the Middle East. Therefore, this thesis aims to identify changing female employment patterns in Jordan with particular reference to young single urban women. Unlike previous generations, women currently marry at a later age, have relatively high education levels and have access to expanding employment opportunities. The result is that women are experiencing a new life course trajectory: single employed adulthood. Given that Jordanian society has traditionally been based on rigid gender and generation hierarchies, the study explores the implications of the new trends at two main and inter-related levels: the workplace and the household. The research methodology utilises both quantitative and qualitative tools and consists of an employer survey of 36 private sector institutions, a questionnaire survey of 302 households, and a sub-sample of 40 semi-structured interviews with young women. At the workplace level it explores the bases of gender differentiated recruitment and occupational segregation and how this structures young women's work opportunities. At the household level the investigation assesses the characteristics that are likely to influence young female labour supply and considers inter-generational patterns of household income management. Synthesising these perspectives, the research then goes on to explore the ways in which normative patriarchal relations are responding to young women's prolonged single adulthood as well as young women's perceptions of their work. One of the main findings of the research is that single adulthood may have expanded opportunities and the aspirational horizon for some young women but it had not brought about a significant redistribution of either power relations or gender divisions in society at large

Gender and generation in household labor supply in Jordan [Arabic]

This paper examines gender and age differences in the labor supply of households in Jordan, and the impact of young women’s employment on gender and generation relations. The objective of the study is to address the issues of gender and generation as factors influencing accessibility to labor markets, and to provide a broader understanding of female employment by exploring age-related factors. Empirically, the study looks at the disproportionate workforce participation of young urban single women in Amman, Jordan, and argues that this generation of working women is evidence of a new stage in the lives of Jordanian women: single employed adulthood. It looks at a specific “time” in the social and economic lives of households and individuals. Within this context, the paper constructs a profile of employment characteristics of adult household members to explore the intersecting influences of age and gender and the specific positions of young women. It then addresses how normative gender and generation hierarchies within households respond to these phenomena of young women’s work, their prolonged single status, and their expanding horizons

Genre et migration : les lignes directrices de l’Organisation internationale du travail pour une aide aux travailleuses migrantes

Cet article va porter essentiellement sur les travailleuses migrantes volontaires, dans leurs pays de destination. On considère souvent les migrations internationales comme un phénomène transitoire répondant à des situations temporaires de pénuries et de surplus de main-d’œuvre. Or de nombreux éléments montrent que, tout en étant en constante évolution dans sa nature, son échelle et sa composition, cette forme de mouvement de population est en fait une caractéristique structurelle importante ..

Implications of the Young Age Structure of the Female Labour Force in Amman

La forte participation des femmes de 20 à 30 ans au marché de la main-d’œuvre à Amman s’explique d’abord par la structure jeune de la population en général. Par ailleurs, la main-d’œuvre jordanienne est de plus en plus citadine et les nouvelles tendances de l’emploi affectent plus les femmes que les hommes. En abordant la classe d’âge des femmes de 20-30 ans, l’étude souligne leur participation proportionnellement plus importante par rapport aux femmes plus âgées et s’interroge sur les implications de ce fait pour l’avenir.The high participation of women aged 20-29 in the labour force results partly from the generally young population structure of Jordan. Furthermore, the Jordanian labour force is increasingly urban and this applies even more to females than males. In studying the 20-29 age class in the female labour force, this paper underlines their high participation as compared to older women and looks at the implications such a fact might have for the future

Gender and generation in household labor supply in Jordan

This paper examines gender and age differences in the labor supply of households in Jordan, and the impact of young women’s employment on gender and generation relations. The objective of the study is to address the issues of gender and generation as factors influencing accessibility to labor markets, and to provide a broader understanding of female employment by exploring age-related factors. Empirically, the study looks at the disproportionate workforce participation of young urban single women in Amman, Jordan, and argues that this generation of working women is evidence of a new stage in the lives of Jordanian women: single employed adulthood. It looks at a specific “time” in the social and economic lives of households and individuals. Within this context, the paper constructs a profile of employment characteristics of adult household members to explore the intersecting influences of age and gender and the specific positions of young women. It then addresses how normative gender and generation hierarchies within households respond to these phenomena of young women’s work, their prolonged single status, and their expanding horizons

Conference on the 70th Anniversary of the founding of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the UNHCR Statute, CRMS is organizing two webinar sessions on January 21st,2021 in the framework of the International Conference organized by the Global Academic Interdisciplinary (GAIN

Global TALES feasibility study: Personal narratives in 10-year-old children around the world

Personal narratives make up more than half of children's conversations. The ability to share personal narratives helps build and maintain friendships, promotes physical and emotional wellbeing, supports classroom participation, and underpins academic success and vocational outcomes. Although personal narratives are a universal discourse genre, cross-cultural and cross-linguistic research into children's ability to share personal narratives is in its infancy. The current study addresses this gap in the research by developing the Global TALES protocol, a protocol comprising six scripted prompts for eliciting personal narratives in school-age children (excited, worried, annoyed, proud, problem situation, something important). We evaluated its feasibility with 249 ten-year-old children from 10 different countries, speaking 8 different languages, and analyzed researchers' views on the process of adapting the protocol for use in their own country/language. At group-level, the protocol elicited discourse samples from all children, although individual variability was evident, with most children providing responses to all six prompts. When investigating the topics of children's personal narratives in response to the prompts, we found that children from around the world share many commonalities regarding topics of conversation. Once again individual variability was high, indicating the protocol is effective in prompting children to share their past personal experiences without forcing them to focus on one particular topic. Feedback from the participating researchers on the use of the protocol in their own countries was generally positive, although several translation issues were noted. Based on our results, we now invite clinical researchers from around the world to join us in conducting further research into this important area of practice to obtain a better understanding of the development of personal narratives from children across different languages and cultures and to begin to establish local benchmarks of performance

Presentations / Publications

Overview of outputs related to the Global TALES projec