Policy Briefs
Advancing Women’s Agency in Jordan: Progress, Gaps and Policy Priorities, 2010–2025 – Evidence from the Jordan Labor Market Panel Survey
No.
PB 163
Publisher
ERF
Date
June, 2026
In a nutshell
- Patterns of women’s agency in Jordan show uneven progress over 2010-2025 across dimensions. Gains in women’s voice in household decisions and rejection of intimate partner violence are now high in many groups, especially among married women, while other dimensions still lag behind.
- Freedom of movement and financial autonomy remain the weakest dimensions. Even in 2025, many women still cannot go alone to key places, about half report access to household money, and only a small minority own savings or other valuables in their own name.
- Education is a powerful equalizer. Women with secondary or higher education are more likely than less educated women to participate in household decisions, move freely, access money, own assets, and hold supportive attitudes toward gender equality.
- Regional and nationality gaps are modest but persistent. Women in the Middle and South regions face greater constraints on mobility and financial autonomy, and Syrian women lag behind Jordanian women in ownership of assets.
- Gender attitudes have become more ambivalent. Support for women’s right to work and equal schooling remains widespread, but enthusiasm for women’s leadership and for men sharing housework and care has weakened over time, especially among younger and less educated women.
- In 2025, men are consistently less supportive than women of women’s work, financial independence, and leadership, although both women and men reject intimate partner violence in nearly every situation.
- Deepening women’s agency requires not only expanding girls’ education and decent jobs, but also securing women’s independent control over savings and assets, expanding safe transport and childcare, targeting refugee and low-income women in financial inclusion and social protection, and engaging men and communities to shift restrictive social norms about women’s work, mobility, and leadership.
Authors
Yusra Alkasasbeh
Adjunct Professor, Northeastern University
Speakers
Rasha Istaiteyeh
Professor of Economics, The Hashemite University, Jordan