MANAL EL-SHARIF
manal_elsharif@harvard.edu

AZIMA
2022 final paper

Introduction
After years of living in and working in the Kingdom of Jordan, its prominent social issues became much more noticeable to me. At some point I noticed a common complaint made by Jordanian women 55+: they struggled to reintegrate back into the workforce after retiring at age 55. The women I spoke with, were experienced women in their respective fields of banking, medicine and law, and they described their frustration with their inability to secure a job after turning 55, primarily due to pervasive sexist attitudes that remain deeply rooted in Jordanian and Arab culture. Unfortunately, too many Jordanian citizens have antiquated ideas pertaining to gender roles, endorsing the idea that work is primarily for men, while women should focus on household and family matters, and that after 55 women should focus on being grandmothers not working (not sure this is correct but something along these lines need to be included). In multiple instances, these women would apply for vacant opportunities, and despite their superior work experience and educational background, they often found themselves losing the race to much younger men with significantly less work experience.

These conversations with my fellow Jordanian women were the primary catalyst that led me to investigate the issue further, pushing me to do some basic research on the topic. According to the World Bank’s latest figures from 2021, 49.3% of Jordan’s population are women, which is far from an insignificant number. Of course, this figure includes females that are under 55, but notwithstanding this fact, I could not help but worry about the economic future of females in Jordan, given this undeniable pattern of exclusion from the workforce which seems to befall Jordanian women at a certain age. According to the Jordanian Department of Statistics’ data from 2019, 63% of employees in the education sector in Jordan was made up of women, indicating that this is one of the few sectors with a female majority in the Kingdom (Appendix 1). A stunning article published by Jordan’s most prominent English-speaking news outlet (Jordan Times) in late 2021 reported “86 out of every 100 women” in Jordan were economically inactive (Appendix 2). Another data point to validate my concerns.

Some of the women I spoke to had previously reached out to government representatives to raise awareness about the issue, but all they received were words of sympathy and no discernible action to solve the problem. This sense of helplessness has led these women to desire immigrating to European and North American societies, in the hope of joining societies where they will be accepted as professionals and included in the workforce. Jordan already has an ongoing “brain-drain” issue, with some of its brightest and most highly motivated citizens leaving the Kingdom in search of a better future – simply because of their extreme disappointment and disillusionment with the country’s economic system.

It is especially crucial to address this problem because it is detrimentally impacting the mental wellbeing of women in Jordan who are struggling to find work simply due to their age and gender. It is also of paramount importance to address this issue because it can expand Jordan’s economy, through empowering marginalized groups. They, in turn, will contribute towards creating numerous economic benefits for Jordan, such as a lower unemployment rate, as well as an increasingly competitive job market.


Pathway
Given this formidable challenge faced by older Jordanian women, coupled with the sparse efforts by the Jordanian government and local NGOs to address the exclusion of these women from the workforce, bold and fearless solutions are certainly called for at this point.
Therefore I am planning to establish a for-profit organization called AZIMA, which is an Arabic word that roughly translates to “willpower”, “grit”, or “determination”. The core mission of AZIMA is to address head-on the exclusion of Jordanian women over 55 from the workforce.
My theory of change involves ensuring that AZIMA helps significantly reduces unemployment rates for Jordanian women over 55; as well as creating a unified awareness campaign that raises awareness on the prevalence of this issue in Jordanian society. More broadly, AZIMA’s theory of change is to normalize the idea of a woman over 55 being involved in the workforce, this will take years to achieve. But we must not be intimidated by the potential length of time required to achieve success, because the most impactful projects often take time to yield their desired outcome. The more we see Jordanian women believing in AZIMA’s vision, the more effective AZIMA will be in transforming the Jordanian society. As AZIMA unifies a grassroots movement that is passionate about achieving this common goal, it will be hard for the Jordanian power structure to ignore the demands. The main impact behind this project is to essentially make the Jordanian workforce more equitable.

My vision involves establishing an office in Amman, the Jordanian capital , where women over 55 can meet, network and build relationships with other women, and make good use of the various services provided by AZIMA. It is worth noting that AZIMA not only aims to tackle the economic barriers facing these women but also to create a safe space for them to share their mental health struggles. Proposed meetings can be weekly face-to-face in the office, or through a WhatsApp group. AZIMA pledges to ensure that any information shared by members will remain confidential and concealed from public disclosure. This will be done as a means of gaining a better understanding of the trials and tribulations facing these clients, and as a means of building trust between AZIMA and its targeted beneficiaries.
AZIMA aims to provide opportunities for its members to further their professional skills. We plan to offer lectures and workshops on social media literacy, digital skills, and negotiation. AZIMA also aims to assist our members in the process of searching and gaining for consulting opportunities in Jordan. This will be done by providing various services such as resume-building, updated interviewing skills taught by experts. Through the provision of these services to AZIMA’s members and the national movement to accept women over 55 in the workplace will their chances of being reintegrated into the Jordanian workforce..

I would like to enhance the negotiating skills of AZIMA’s clients. First, negotiation in Jordan, is a key part of the Jordan’s commercial culture, as it is common both merchants and consumers to bargain and exchange offers, whether that is for miniscule transactions in the context of shopping for basic items, or the in the context of high-stakes transactions involving mergers & acquisitions. The problem is that for high stakes transactions, the idea of having women at the negotiation table remains uncommon. This also stems from anachronistic social attitudes towards women that desperately need reforming. Because of this issue, AZIMA aims to invest some of its capital towards hiring prominent negotiation experts in the Middle East, to give crucial lectures for AZIMA’s clients on the fundamentals of negotiation, as well as conveying how to incorporate negotiation into high stakes interactions.

AZIMA’s business model includes receiving a fee from the monies the women receive when they get jobs providing training, consulting, coaching, and mentoring services to organizations and individuals. We will first begin with a pilot program in the area of banking, and then scale into other industries and countries in the Arab world.
Stakeholder/constituent analysis

The main stakeholders and resources that will need to be mobilized to propel AZIMA towards success, include funders, women over 55 living in Jordan (including refugees in this age bracket), and expert lecturers.

After identifying funding possibilities during the planning phase, the next phase will involve reaching out to potential funders via email in order to schedule meetings with them. Potential funders include non-profit-organizations, banks, intergovernmental organizations, and if possible, certain Jordanian Ministries such as the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship.

Once the appropriate funding is secured, AZIMA will begin its hiring phase, in which it will hire experienced and qualified professionals (members) that can help achieve the vision of AZIMA. This will be done mainly by inviting nominations from our primary network (using online and offline platforms) and then conducting interviews to ensure alignment with AZIMA.
Forces of inertia/resistance
Whenever an ambitious project comes to the forefront of any society, it will inevitably face various barriers and forms of resistance. When it comes to AZIMA, I anticipate that one form of resistance against my project will potentially come from those who want to uphold the status quo which reinforces outdated gender roles and stereotypes. Specifically, this type of resistance might come from religious conservatives/fundamentalists based in the Kingdom. It is possible that they might express their dismay towards this project through social media platforms or media publications.
To respond these possibilities means we must be prepared to be fearless, as we advance our cause. Leveraging the power of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Tik Tok is one way we can mitigate these challenges. Creating hashtags and posting the concerns of Jordanian women online, could encourage more women to speak up about their exclusion from the workforce and the discriminatory practices towards professional women. AZIMA plans on using social media to highlight the challenges women over 55 face when they try to re-enter the workforce. The movement will be designed to get everyone engaged and supporting the movement that women over 55 can have a positive impact on the society. One of our first hires will be social media experts.
Addressing gender inequality in the workforce in Jordan largely remains a taboo subject. Many consider it a sensitive subject and avoid talking about it, leading to the status quo remaining intact. This means that there is a massive gap in the market when it comes to what AZIMA aims to do, which conveys that a golden opportunity awaits the entity that is courageous enough to take on the status quo, since there really AZIMA is well positioned to be a leader of this effort because there has not been any other stakeholder in Jordan trying to uplift women over 55. The issue of gender inequality in the workforce is sometimes mentioned by some human rights organizations in Jordan through their website and their research (such as the ‘Amman Center for Human Rights Studies’), but in terms of actually trying to establish an organization that has an identical mission to AZIMA, this has not been done before in Jordan.
Indicators of success
Success in my project can be measured in a multitude of ways, like improving revenue-earning prospects for AZIMA’s core demographic, expanding the skill set of this core demographic, and providing a platform/safe-space for this core demographic to share their concerns and struggles, including any mental health struggles.
We will know that our efforts are becoming successful because women over 55 will experience an increase in employment, they continue to earn sufficient money that they can care for themselves, the wider Jordian community becomes more supportive of women over 55 working, and other Middle Eastern countries experience a rise in supporting women over 55 working. Securing sufficient funding will be a massive indicator of success for AZIMA, as it will be a sign which says that people believe in the need for this project to exist in Jordan. Other indicators might include a revenue stream that increases with the passage of time, gaining a strong social media following, and inspiring more women in Jordan to talk about the very issue that the project is trying to solve. If AZIMA proves to be a resounding success in Jordan, the idea of expanding and opening new branches in other Middle Eastern countries is an intriguing thought, but it must be supported by extensive market research and business planning.
Because AZIMA is for and by women over 55, constant feedback is necessary to ensure that we are truly having the impact desired. Additionally, getting feedback from the wider community is important to ensure that we gain support and don’t inadvertently alienate the needed allies. To ensure a large reach, we will leverage the various social media platforms to promote our messages and receive feedback.
Note: you need a powerful conclusion.
Citations
Data.worldbank.org. 2022. Population, female (% of total population) - Jordan | Data. [online] Available at: