Women's Participation in the Workforce - Challenges and Characteristics in Jordan





Zeena Moutaz Khalaf
Leen Adel Nakhaleh
Mervat Waleed Abu Sara

Department of Business Administration,
King Talal Faculty of Business and Technology,
Princess Sumaya University for Technology,
Amman, Jordan

Abstract

Women are considered half of any given society, and accordingly, empowering women is considered a tool of development, especially in our Jordanian economy. This research aims to investigate the reasons behind women leaving the workforce and not contributing back. We chose to conduct an IE framework to analyze the factors that affect female employees within and out of their working environment. Jordan is one of the many countries that value its traditions and cultures. This has an influence on how people think and perceive the role of women in our society, and in some cases ascribes women to a specific role, such as in the household. As a result, female employees in our society consider their job secondary to their traditional role as a mother. Accordingly, any practices that may harm their level of effectiveness within their home may lead them to drop out from the workforce and not contribute back in order to fulfill their maternal role.

Introduction

In the last 50 years, women have been raised and taught to be mothers for their children, professional cooks for their families and super housekeepers who keep their home neat and clean.

Our society has excluded women from being productive individuals and has restricted women's ambitions, by not giving them the chance to leave aside the burden of family and traditions.
For some women, this does not stop them. Many leading, ambitious and hard-working women have fought for their dreams and have tried to initiate a remarkable revolution in society to encourage and engage other women to participate in the workforce. But unfortunately the participation of women is still considered very low and being a working woman is uncommon.
Unfortunately, despite the high level of women's education and open vacancies for women to take in the workforce, the levels of their participation are still not high enough (Al-Badayneh, 2012).

Nowadays, the economic growth of any country needs the dedication and hard work of all their individuals. The high percentage of non-working women has been highlighted as a direct threat to the economy as it is considered an extra cost which causes lower levels of proficiency and productivity, especially in Jordan and the Middle East (Kharouf & Weir, 2008).

Women are recognized as having the potential in society to increase economic growth; many studies have shown that despite the low participation of women in the workforce, a distinctive improvement in health and education conditions has occurred over the past several decades (Peebles, Darwazeh, Ghosheh & Sabbagh, 2007).

In return, organizations and business owners have neglected business ethics, and gender discrimination is prevalent. Organizations have acknowledged that women's rights pose higher costs and classified women as non-productive employees.

Literature review

Female participation in the workforce is determined by the percentage of females engaged in the total working population of a state or country (Pegu, 2015).

Accordingly, women's rights (Doepke & Tertilt, 2011), parliamentary representation (Stockemer & Byrne, 2011), women entrepreneurship (Hattab, 2012), and women empowerment are concepts that have been spread widely through the press, as well as in studies and activisms. In addition, the different types of discrimination that women face in and out the working environment (e.g. the income gap, gender inequality, political factors, and social factors) have been investigated.

The national development of human rights (2004) noted that" Women's low participation rates in the economy and in the private sector present a high cost to the Jordanian economy." According to this statement, Jordan is a country that needs to encourage women to participate more in the workforce. As such, the reasons behind women's low participation in the workforce need to be acknowledged, and alternative solutions should be taken into consideration, to ensure growth in the Jordanian economy. Especially, it should be acknowledged that many women in Jordan, particularly the younger generation, are very well educated as they are considered a waste of human resources in Jordan.

There are two types of factors that influence women employees:
a. Internal organizational factors
b. External organizational factors

Internal Organizational Factors
Internal organizational factors are conditions, entities, events and factors within an organization that influence its activities and choices, and the behavior of the employees.

Women face many challenges in their daily life, especially in the workplace. Discrimination toward women has been propagated in organizations. Unequal opportunities occur based on gender bias and inequality along with gender stereotypes. However, this reduces the effectiveness of organizational operations and weakens the bond that should be built between employees, affecting their motivation, and diminishing their productivity (Equality & Education, 2012).

Internal organizational factors affect female employees within the organization structure (Mogyoro, 2011), and may cause instability in the organization environment. Furthermore, they may affect the level of female participation and the effectiveness of the organization's activities.
These factors are categorized as: gender stereotypes, income gap, unequal opportunities and gender inequality, but they are all related and affect each other, causing discrimination toward women within the workplace environment.

Gender Stereotype
The stereotypes that are connected with gender perceptions identify the personality, behavior, roles, skills and physical appearance that are to be expected from men and women (Crowley, 2013).

Women today are perceived as less capable of handling job difficulties, especially if they have other priorities like a family. Many obstacles arise based on their stereotypical role that hinder their personal and professional role, as reflected in the fact that women are underrepresented in high levels of management (Aycan, 2004).

Researchers have discussed how negative stereotype ideas are based on women. It has been noted that gender roles commonly lead to the discouragement of women's employment outside the home in non-traditional jobs (Heilman, 1997; Schreiber, 1998).

Therefore, these trends and perceptions toward women have left them doubting their own abilities. They are less confident and uncertain of their expertise (Al-Badayneh, 2012), which will contribute to the discouragement of women in participating in the workforce.

As a study has noted, existing sex roles exert real pressures on individuals to behave in a certain prescribed way (Broverman, 1972). Accordingly, the stereotypical role of a woman's job is perceived as a feminine type of job that matches the traditional role as a caregiver, like teaching, nursing, childcare, and secretarial work. Plus, the stereotypical role for men is one that is masculine, which needs to match their traditional role as a breadwinner like engineering, sales, and insurance agent. This mismatch between stereotypical roles and desirable work roles has a negative effect on workplace evaluation for the employee positioning and promoting process (Heilman & Eagly, 2008).

Gender inequality
After investigating gender inequality further, researchers have found that gender inequality does have a negative impact on female participation in the workforce (Peebles et al., 2007). It may lead them to drop out from the workforce to stop being neglected.

Studies have shown that women get paid less than men (Peebles et al., 2007), based on gender discrimination.

Another example of real gender inequality can be found in banks, where some banks prefer to employ males rather than female employees, as they consider them to be a burden. From the organization point of view, females may take maternity leave and may represent a cost for the company.

Some male employees do not accept to be controlled by their female manager, as the male ego will always interfere in accepting females as bosses. The traditional way of thinking and their traditional role in our society will cause them to behave in a certain way (Saunders, 2013).

Unequal opportunities
Traditions have greatly affected the way people think in our society. With time, more opportunities have appeared and there have been major changes for women and their role in the society. Despite this fact, discrimination still exists based on traditional views of women, which limits the advancement of women in their career. In some cases, it pressures them to drop out, as a result of frustration and disappointment, due to gender bias leading to unequal opportunities in the workplace (Tlaiss & Kauser, 2011).

Organizations are highly affected by cultural values and stereotypical viewpoints, which are, in turn, highly affecting the way organizations operate. Therefore, in some cases, this may lead to discrimination toward female employment (Metle, 2002; Khattab, 1996; Kausar, 1995).

The stereotypical and traditional role of women is affecting their career advancement, as men are perceived more suitable for high level positions than women. The attitude of "think man/think manager" is taking place in our society as the male character is perceived to be more appropriate for the management position (Jamali et al., 2005).

Many studies have proven that training and advancement in many cases is prioritized for men rather than women. This gives men the opportunity to acquire special skills needed for the job requirements, and increase their possibility to grow within the organizational structure, while keeping women in lower levels of management (Weir, 2003).

Furthermore, there are unequal opportunities based on gender-biased attitudes in the employment process. Traditional views observe women as quitters due to marriage and child birth plans, and females face harassment in the interview stage by being asked personal questions that are not usually asked to men.

Income gap
Female participation in the workforce is highly affected by the income gap. Women tend to receive fewer earnings than men, and stay in the same income brackets for a longer period of time. Many researchers considered this fact to reflect the stereotypical role of women in the society as a caregiver. Consequently, they are perceived as needing less raises and promotions in comparison to men. In contrast, men are perceived as breadwinners, which are responsible for their household expenses, including their wife and kids. Therefore, this will lead to unequal opportunities for women to grow, and slower progression in their careers (Tlaiss & Kauser, 2010).
But some studies have proven that the income gap is highly related to specific skills required, and the level of education attained by women (Moghadam, 2013). Others note that it is more a result of gender discrimination.

There have been critics who have explored that women are the reason behind the income gap, because women tend to make different choices about work, marriage, and child birth. These factors need to be taken into consideration in determining the income gap between men and women. But unfortunately, this is considered to be a judgment based on stereotypical attitudes towards women, and mostly reflects an attitude of gender discrimination that lacks an understanding of a woman's situation and needs (U.S. Dept of Labor, 2009).

The studies on the income gap between women and men revealed that women make 77% of what men make. This number came from the comparison between men and women with a full time job, and it does not take into account the type of job and working hours. For example, the comparison was not made between different teachers or between different doctors. The US Department of Labor took into account the education and career choices as part of the equation. By consideration of these factors, they found that women make nearly the same amount as men, which is 94% (U.S. Dept of Labor, 2009).

Moreover, the choices those women make about education affect how much they earn, as women tend to go for fields like health, education, and social science, while men tend to go for engineering and computer science.

Also, women tend to make different choices about their jobs, as they prefer to work part time jobs rather than full time, due to family responsibilities, and take maternity leave for childbirth. As a result, the income gap between men and women is not based on gender discrimination; it is actually affected by the choices that women and men make.

External Organizational Factors
External organizational factors include conditions, entities, events and factors surrounding an organization that influence its activities and choices, and determine its opportunities and risks.
To determine the external organizational factors, we are going to conduct the PEST analysis, which is defined as the external influences that affect the business' environmental decisions and performance, and can be classified into political, economic, social, and technological factors (Grant & Jordan, 2012).

Political factors
Jordan has always been known for its concern for human rights, and that concern has been reflected on the Kingdom's stability for the past 40 years. The Jordanian National Charter has clear regulations related to human rights.

Jordan has protected women in their first National Charter regulation, which is, "All Jordanians are equal by the law and have the right to assume public office and the right to work."

In 1955, the government had given only educated women the right to vote. Then in 1974, all women were given the right to vote, and the right to participate in the general elections ("Jordan - Human Resources - Human Rights," n.d.).

In contrast, in 1928, the United Kingdom government gave all women the right to vote on par with men (Ford, Goodwin & Cutts, 2012). In addition, in 1920, the United States of America gave all their citizens the right to vote regardless of their sex (Keyssar, 2009).
In 1996, a national committee was developed to support women among governmental and non-governmental sectors. They formulated general policies that defined priorities and programs such as the "Jordanian women union" to support women in different fields ("Jordan - Human Resources - Human Rights," n.d.).

Jordanian regulations and laws can impact women's participation in the workforce both positively and negatively. Some of these regulations that intend to protect women have also affected their economical participation and also caused discrimination against them (Council, 2008).

The table below presents labor laws and regulations, listed and discussed, according to their effect on female participation in the workforce (Peebles et al., 2007).

Table 1: Laws and regulations that impact women within the workforce

Source: Our elaboration.

Economic factors
Women represent half of any given society. Sadly, a large percentage of them are not contributing to the workforce. To ensure the development of any given society, men and women need to be productive and active to be part of the advancement in our society (Olaimat & Al-Louzi, 2010).

Women in Jordan are still affected by many factors that hinder their economic participation, like legal issues, the availability of childcare services, poverty, and the high costs of living. In addition, the role of women in our society and traditional views about women employees lead to low self-esteem and lack of confidence to contribute in the workforce (Olaimat & Al-Louzi, 2010).
Jordan is considered among the countries with a high cost of living in comparison to other countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Vietnam (Al Qadi & Gharib, 2012).

Consequently, women with a high-income tend to have the ability to cover the costs of childcare or a nanny, and as such, they tend to participate more in their careers (Moghadam, 2013). However, women with middle income may perceive that the income they earn would be spent on a nanny, childcare and transportation, which means that their expenses would exceed their earnings. So in some cases, they would rather stay home than work.

Unfortunately, women with low income can't afford having a nanny, childcare and transportation to help in taking care of the house while they're at work, and therefore, they tend to participate less (Al-Qadi & Gharib, 2012).

Some researchers note that the low participation rate of women in Jordan is considered to be a cost on Jordan's economy. This is especially the case when a large percentage of these women are highly educated, which means that there is a serious waste of human resources (Peebles et al., 2007). Investing in women's education and employment will lead to building a more efficient human resource base (Moghadam, 2013).

The Ministry of Labor noted that women are not aware and familiar with their labor rights. Therefore, women need to be more informed about their laws and regulations. Moreover; the ability and strength to enforce the labor laws and regulations is needed by the government (Peebles et al., 2007).

Social factors
Jordan is a country that has a distinct culture, which is considered to be a nice blend of old and new. However, the traditions in Jordan have a major effect on how people live, think and act. Many foundations have been founded and supported by the royal family, to protect women, empower them and fight for their rights, for the intention of building opportunities for a high quality of life.

A recent study on women in tourism noted that "25.3% of women working in the tourism sector were harassed by colleagues and customers, since it is not commonly accepted that women work in this field in Jordan" (Majcher-teleon & Slimène, 2009).

Women are also perceived to be less capable of handling job difficulties, so they are usually discouraged to join some fields like the technical fields. This is especially the case when some work aspects require field work and late working hours like with construction engineers, which is considered more appropriate for men, with only 0.5% of women in this field (Ojakaa, Olango, & Jarvis, 2014)

Some Jordanian organizations care about and judge based on the physical appearance, so that they tend to hire women who are dressed more fashionable, and are stylish and elegant, especially in the private sectors. Some people are of the opinion that women will get more chances because they are "more beautiful". However, wearing Hijab is a requirement for certain organizations due to the type of customers that they serve. But studies have shown that in the private sectors women wearing the Hijab have problems getting hired. But it is still not clear if this is due to appearance or religious reasons (Peebles et al., 2007).

Getting married is one of the main priorities for men and women in Jordan. Women sometimes work until they find the right husband, and after that, they start to not taking their job seriously or quit their jobs (Sawalha, 1999).

Technological Factors
Information technology has spread widely all over the world. Different life sectors such as education, health, government, and customer services are following the latest technology trends, in order to enhance the quality of service, maximize customer satisfaction, and reduce managerial costs.

Telecommunication has made it easier for women who have kids to check up on them during the day, and she can even use web cams to keep her eye on her kids during working hours.
On the other hand, these technological improvements introduce some pressures, especially for employees. Nowadays, employees are required to be notified and responsive to their work notifications, even after working hours and on weekends. Now organizations consider this to be their right and employees are obliged to be responsive as long as they have a Smartphone (Hanson, 2007).

Methodology

Our research is typically concerned with women employees, who are considered essential to our society. There has been a trend of women leaving the workforce. Researchers have heavily investigated in separate studies the different factors that influence women within the workforce and lead to discriminatory practices in and out of their working environment.

An IE framework (internal and external factors) will be conducted to categorize the several factors that are considered to be the main reasons behind women leaving the workforce and not contributing to society.

The internal factors are within the working environment, and will be categorized as: gender stereotype, gender inequality, unequal opportunities, and income gap. These factors are all within the control of the organization, and may affect women's decisions about working, whether to proceed or drop out, and not to contribute to society.

The external factors are the factors that are beyond the control of the organization, and may also affect women's decisions and intentions about proceeding with their careers. The PEST analysis model will be conducted to analyze the external factors that may affect women employees.
Therefore, this study will be qualitative in nature rather than quantitative as it will give women employees the ability to express their own thoughts and beliefs that they face inside and outside their working environment. Accordingly, we can determine the factors that are mostly affecting women employees and clarify their thoughts and attitudes toward their careers.

The interviewed group includes five women from different organizations, career paths and marital statuses. The organization environment can influence women employees, it needs to be healthy and understanding of the women's role in our society, plus their career paths are taken into consideration, because some careers are considered more appropriate for women and vice versa, in addition to their marital status as single women may think differently than married women and even in prioritizing their jobs. This is going to be demonstrated later in this chapter.
Confidentiality is assured, as the records are only going to be heard and analyzed by the researcher group of this study, and neither the interviewers' names or the name of the organizations they work for are going to be mentioned in the data analysis chapter.

We have extended our research to include an interview with the Jordanian Women Union which is an institution that supports women in Jordan, and offers opportunities to encourage them to work under the right circumstances. They also fight for women's rights and increase awareness among Jordanian women about their legal rights.

As the general manager of the JWU noted, there are two main factors that actually affect women's participation in the workforce: first are the social and the cultural values and beliefs, the second are the political factors. This institution has conducted many studies on female participation within the workforce and the level of participation in Jordan.

The general manager noted, "Women present 52% of our society. Accordingly, almost half of our society is inoperative in the production process, and surprisingly that by the increasing level of women education and the rate of turnout on education still women represent only 14% in the Jordanian workforce. Why is this happening?"

In addition, the union believes that if the right requirements within the workforce environment were available for women, like childcares, equal opportunities and decent wages, women would be encouraged to participate in the workforce.

The general manager of the JWU also noted that "marriage sets some responsibilities on women, so that all the work distribution will be against women. For example, women are responsible for their house chores, plus, for the birth of child, in addition to after birth conditions. Accordingly, the mentality and the way men think as if they helped with the house chores they consider themselves like doing some extra work."

Therefore, we will take into consideration their marital status because women employees tend to think differently according to their marital status, and even discriminatory practices and social perceptions differ from single to married women (Moghadam, 2013).

To summarize, this research will be qualitative in nature to gain a deep understanding of women's behaviors and beliefs, as we will conduct open interview using open-ended questions, with women from different institutions and career paths, or even those who have already left the workforce.

Data Analysis

Data analysis is considered one of the most important practices, which is adopted to study and evaluate collected data into useful information. Such practice will lead to better decision-making and building hypotheses.

This section presents data that was collected during our interviews with a sample of five people. As mentioned earlier in the previous chapters, this study will be qualitative in nature.

On another level, we will be testing the IE framework hypothesis to check if it matches the problems that women actually face in their career paths, whether in or out of their working environment.

According to the IE framework, women in the workforce face many discriminatory practices internally and externally. These factors may have a major influence on the level of contribution.

Table 2: Description of the interviewed personnel

Source: Our elaboration.

According to the table above each of these interviews will be categorized based on the IE framework and beneath each table the data will be analyzed and discussed.

Table 3: Woman 1 IE Framework Analysis

Source: Our elaboration.

According to woman number 1, her career development was hindered based on gender inequality and gender stereotypes, which lead to the unequal attainment of the opportunities offered.

But still she believes that the working environment can't suit everybody. As she noted, "you can't request a working environment that suits every working individual."

She also noted that, "there can be many reasons for me to change my career path, as if I got married I will seek another career such as teaching, but for now I am not considering leaving the workforce."

Table 4: Woman 2 IE Framework Analysis

Source: Our elaboration.

In this case, woman number two has a very traditional way of thinking. Accordingly, the social, cultural traditions and beliefs have a major effect on the way she perceives work. She noted that "women can't manage between their home and jobs so if the family is stable financially, women should stay at home taking care of their kids."

Regardless of her traditional way of thinking, still it was obvious that her experience within the workforce was not that pleasant. Also, the lack of understanding of women's needs is setting some obstacles that discourage women from participating.

Table 5: Woman 3 IE Framework Analysis

Source: Our elaboration.

Woman 3 is a perfect example for such a case, as she can be considered to be a victim of discriminatory practices within the workplace. Some of the employers from the same organization noted that, "she has been in the same management level for 5 years in consequence every raising opportunity that she was supposed get, where given to men based on gender bias." They also noted that, "she is very smart and hard working women and definitely more appropriate for advancement in her career."

This woman is considering leaving her work due to her terrible working environment that does not understand women's needs. The lack of understanding of women's roles in our society is discouraging women from proceeding with their careers, along with the discriminatory practices that are delaying their development.

Unfortunately, this has led to frustration even with other female employees in the same organization, as they have also noted, "women in this organization go through many difficulties and delays within their development, as here men always get the priority for raises."

Despite the consequences of the external factors, organizations need to be more concerned about their employer's productivity, and motivate them by offering the right working conditions.

This woman has made it clear that organizations can make her life much easier if they gave her the opportunity to leave work earlier and finish her tasks at home. Accordingly, the technological factors can be used in a more effective way by the organization to ease the jobs of working mothers.

Table 6: Woman 4 IE Framework Analysis

Source: Our elaboration.

This woman has left the workforce mainly for external reasons, as she felt that the salary she got wasn't worth her time out of the house, and the fact that she couldn't leave her kids in the time when they need their mother most.

Accordingly, women feel that they are the only ones responsible for their kids and house care, and that view comes from the gender stereotype and our traditional view of women.

But still, internal factors can influence the level of participation, as the lack of motivating factors within the working environment; in addition to the unequal treatment have made women less attached to their job and career development.

Table 7: Woman 5 IE Framework Analysis

Source: Our elaboration.

According to this case, unfortunately women work only for financial security, as we didn't feel that they were seeking it for personal or career development.

Even in fields that are considered most appropriate, women still face discriminatory practices. The female gender role is perceived negatively based on the fact that it is thought that women are weaker and less capable of handling job difficulties.

According to the data analysis, many findings were determined that have supported our hypothesis, and they will be explained and discussed in the next chapter.

Discussion

In this chapter we will discuss our findings related to our hypothesis. As we mentioned earlier, the aim of this study is to ascertain the reasons behind women leaving the workforce and not contributing to society.

Therefore, we have developed a conceptual framework that we thought would be helpful in such a case. Many factors were suggested and many results have been found, and now we will discuss and prove how these results support our hypothesis according to our analysis technique. The figure below supports our hypothesis as follows:

Figure 1: The IE framework according to women employees

Source: Our elaboration.

Figure 1 depicts the IE framework, and it shows that women employees are the center of this research. Women employees are affected by several factors that might lower their level of participation.

The Internal Factors Analysis

Figure 2: Internal factors affecting women employees within their working environment.

Source: Our elaboration.

Women's participation levels are affected by these factors, because such discriminatory behaviors lead to frustration and disappointment within the working environment. Consequently, women will tend to feel less attached to their jobs and the plans to leave the workforce are based on external reasons that we are going to explain later in this chapter.

The External Factors Analysis
The figures below show some comments about women. We have analyzed them in accordance to the external factors.

Interview Analysis for the Political Factor

Figure 3: Political factor interviews analysis

Source: Our elaboration.

According to our analysis, laws and regulations have been developed to favor women as they intend to protect female employees within their working environment.

Besides, we have found out that there is a lack of knowledge among women employees about their laws and rights, which make these laws and rights seem unnecessary to implement.
Disappointedly, discriminatory practices take place even with these laws and regulations. Affected women employees become less motivated to proceed or participate in the workforce on account of the lack of support.

Interview Analysis of Economic Factors

Figure 4: Economic factors Interviews analysis

Source: Our elaboration.

In line with the participants' responses, economic factors have an influence on how women employees perceive work, as they consider their jobs as a way to secure their families.

Interview Analysis Social Factors

Figure 5: Social Factors Interview Analysis

Source: Our elaboration.

According to the figure above, the social factors are the factors that have the largest amount of comments, which means that women employees are mostly getting affected by social and cultural values and traditions.

Women in our society consider themselves as a mother first, then as an employee, therefore their job as a mother is primary. If a woman felt in any way or another that her job is affecting and harming her motherhood, she will have a tendency to leave the workforce (Peebles et al., 2007).

Social factors are not only affecting women roles; they are even affecting women's choices and preferences. Moreover, women tend to participate in fields that the society finds more appropriate for women, and if the society perceived the opposite, women will feel less comfortable, and will reconsider to change their careers paths (Hattab, 2012).

Interview Analysis of Technological Factors
Women employees and organizations are not taking into consideration technological factors. But in the technical fields they have very late working hours and sadly they tend to leave women working overtime even though they can complete their tasks at home. We think that further research needs to be done on technological factors and how they can be used more effectively for employees within the organization (Mamaghani, 2006).

The Balance between Women Primary and Secondary Job

Figure 6: Balance between women's primary and secondary job

Source: Our elaboration.

This figure shows that women tend to participate as long as there is a balance between home and work, regardless of the fact that their role as a mother is their primary job.

Accordingly, as long as the balance has been made, women will benefit from their job, because that will increase the level of security in their families.

The Imbalance Between Women's Primary And Secondary Jobs

Figure 7: Imbalance between women's primary and secondary jobs

Source: Our elaboration.

Accordingly an imbalance between home and work can occur due to an unhealthy working environment that stresses women, leading to frustration and disappointment. This can make them less capable of managing their house and they tend to leave the workforce.

Women need to be understood and motivated under the right conditions within the workplace. They need to be encouraged to proceed within an organization's working environment that is equal, motivating and understanding toward a woman's role. This will have positive outcomes for women's participation in the workforce.

Limitations and Recommendations

Most studies we found were conducted on women who live in a culture which is totally different from our Jordanian culture. When we started to write down our hypothesis, we raised all possible factors internally or externally which can be considered to affect women's participation in the workforce. Nevertheless, due to the tight deadline, we believe that it would be recommended if we studied each factor in depth, in order to have stronger evidence to our hypothesis.

On another level, this study was qualitative in nature. The group sample needed to involve women from different sectors, but in our research we couldn't get the chance to meet and involve women employees from the public sectors. This was despite the fact that the participants noted that it's necessary, as women in the public sectors perceive work differently.

Our studying and researching in this topic won't stop here and we would love to take it a step further. Accordingly, for future work we recommend the following:

• Women from different backgrounds and sectors will be interviewed, in order to gain the proper amount of information needed to build a comprehensive research.
• Further research shall be conducted on women's biological differences. As the biological characteristics determine how women feel, act and think, they can consequently have an influence on how women perceive work and set their priorities (Williams, 1988)

Conclusion

Women are considered half of any given society, and as such, empowering women is a tool to ensure development in our Jordanian economy, because we cannot succeed if half of us are held back. Accordingly, this research aims to investigate the reasons behind women leaving the workforce.

After going through many previous studies, we discovered some factors that have affected women employees inside or outside of their working environment.

The methodology was qualitative in nature by which we conducted an open interview using open-ended questions with a group of people from different organizations, career paths and marital status, to analyze their responses in accordance to our hypothesis.

The IE framework has proved its efficiency, as the results have supported our hypothesis.
We found that the internal factors are all connected to each other, and in some cases, one may lead to another. In addition, women employees do not leave the workforce based on internal reasons, but sadly, when they become less motivated, productive and attached to their jobs. The external factors exert the main influences on women's participation in the workforce. In Jordan, people value their culture and traditional views, and therefore, this has had an influence on how people think and perceive women in our society.

Women now are associated with their traditional role as a mother and they perceive it as their primary job, and being a female employee is considered to be their secondary job (Majcher-teleon & Slimène, 2009).

Accordingly, women need to maintain a balance between their primary and secondary job to proceed with their career path. If there is an imbalance, women tend to leave the workforce, because it harms their level of effectiveness in their primary job, and being a mother always goes first in our society.

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