“Unequal distribution of unpaid care work, and lack of its recognition as work, deprives women from their voice and participation in social, political, and economic life.”

Sahar Aloul is a women’s rights activist who focuses on care work and women’s economic rights in Jordan. She has led national campaigns to lower the barriers that prevent women from joining and remaining in the workforce, including lack of daycare facilities, insufficient public transportation, pay inequity, and lack of social protection. She helped establish SADAQA as a leading women’s rights advocacy group in Jordan to work on addressing these issues, at a time when concepts like gender-sensitive transportation and workplace daycares were largely unknown concepts in the country.

Sahar’s work recognizes that the redistribution of care work can create a more equitable labor market and give women, especially working mothers, a chance to participate in social, political and economic life. She has successfully led national efforts to amend Jordan’s labor law to be gender-neutral, increase access to childcare, and introduce paternity leave and flexible working conditions. Since 2011, SADAQA has been making national strides to change narratives around the essential nature of quality daycare and transportation for women’s economic participation and success.

Sahar recognizes that changing narratives surrounding women’s unpaid work is essential to creating a society that truly values their contributions. Disrupting persistent inequality around the world requires addressing its root causes, and the systems that enable it cannot be dismantled without empathetic leadership, collective action, and a sense of shared responsibility.