Political Overview
Women have shown increasingly more interest in running for public office in Jordan, but unfortunately, few have been able to realize their goal. In 1989, 17 women ran in the parliamentary elections but none were successful. Since then, few have been able to break the norm of excluding women from public office. The possibility for change emerged last February when King Abdullah announced the creation of six new parliamentary seats for women in the June 2003 elections.
Six women made history in Jordan on June 17 as they became the first class of Jordanian women MPs—composing 5.4% of the new Parliament. Previously only one woman had ever been elected in Jordan. These women—a dentist, three teachers, a pharmacist, and a lawyer—were elected throughout the kingdom from the north, south, east and west. Women candidates received more than twice the votes received four years earlier—33,452 compared to 13,128—and more women than men voted, setting another first for Jordan.
Program Overview
To provide Jordanian women with the skills and resources necessary to wage effective electoral campaigns, NDI launched a women candidates' training program in March 2003 for women wanting to run as candidates in the upcoming elections. NDI worked in partnership with the Jordanian National Commission for Women (JNCW) and organized a series of training workshops and consultations that addressed such topics as message development, voter outreach, targeting, fundraising, and image. Of the 54 women who ran for the parliamentary seats, over 40 have been active participants in NDI's training sessions. NDI also trained five of the six newly elected women MPs.
In addition to its work with the JNCW, NDI also helped the Jordanian National Forum for Women (JNFW) to organize a "women's campaign fundraising committee" which raised funds from international donors and Jordanian businesses and used them to produce a 30 second TV spot, a 60 second radio spot, newspaper ads, TV shirts, posters, and stickers for a general awareness and visibility campaign entitled "when women win, the country wins." The campaign helped the public overcome the cultural constraints against voting for women.
Next Steps
NDI is exploring opportunities to train the women MPs on such topics as dealing with the press, focusing their goals, time management and building coalitions to get things done. NDI is also working to design trainings for future women candidates, to develop a fundraising committee of Jordanian women supporting women's campaigns, and to organize a women's quota conference to review the track record of existing quotas and identify what should be done to promote a better quota process. Finally, NDI is producing a documentary on the experiences of Jordanian women candidates and preparing an Arabic campaign training manual based on case studies from the region.
Contact Information
For more information on NDI's programs in Jordan,
please contact:
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