Inside e-Arabization: Why 98% of Our Workforce Are Women

08 March 2021

“When a woman succeeds, she reaches out to those around her and pulls them up with her. That is why if you empower a woman, you empower a whole society.”

 - Queen Rania of Jordan 

 

As a proud Jordanian company and female-founded employer; we prioritise hiring Arab women. And that's why 98% of the team at e-Arabization are brilliant women from across the region. 

Actively supporting female participation in the workplace is one of the goals we’ve built our incredible success on top of. And in a time when as recently as 2017, “only 17% of Jordanian women were economically active (seeking work, whether employed or unemployed).” We’re focused on elevating the talented and educated women of Jordan into professional positions that give them fulfilling career progression, and economic freedom. 

 

Pulling Up Women to Stand With Us 

Jordan’s adult female literacy rate is an impressive 97%, and we’re proud of that fact.

Our woman-led mission is our way of breaking harmful stereotypes about women in the Middle East, and showing the global community what Arab women can do.

 

Navigating Distance, Tradition and Culture 

Learning from the women we hired and the CVs we received from potential hires, we were excited to discover that many of the women applying to work with us were university-educated individuals with degrees in translation, language and literature. 

 

The challenge? 

Once women are married and have children, the logistical challenge of getting a mom or committed homemaker to leave her city or village so she can sit in our e-Arabization office in Amman presents a frustrating reality for women who want to return to work. Some women aren’t able to access transportation to come to work or face long commutes that make balancing home and work life impossible. 

In 2021, we don’t see why distance should limit your ability to provide a meaningful contribution in the workplace, and that’s why we fully support the employment of remote workers from neighbouring areas that may not have easy access to Amman. 

Traditionally speaking, many educated women who get married give up their careers and further education in favour of the hardest job in the world; raising a family. But we’re keen to disrupt the idea that women can’t have a fulfilling home life and a fulfilling professional life, so we work closely with our hires to sensitively navigate individual circumstances and flex to make our work, work around them. 

 

Making our work, work around our employees 

One of our top project coordinators is a highly qualified computer science postgraduate. But she’s also a wife to a night-shift working husband and the mother of a little girl. In an impressive balancing act, we hired her four years ago as a remote junior translator, and she’s rocked her way up the e-Arabization ladder and become an incredible asset to our team. 

Stories like this one are the kind of golden opportunity we live to accelerate, and the work we do at e-Arabization provides the perfect platform for technical wizards, linguistic prodigies, detail-driven QA queens, and highly organized administrative assistants to thrive. 

 

Helping Vulnerable Women To Rebuild Their Lives 

Jordan is home to Za’atari Camp, the largest refugee camp in the world. And amongst those almost 80,000 camp inhabitants, 23% are talented, educated Syrian women, dreaming of a chance to prove themselves. e-Arabization is an equal opportunity employer, and Za-atari is one place we make our mission known through hiring refugees. 

 

Empowering employees with the tools they need to succeed 

In Jordan, 60% of single moms and families where women are the sole income earner live in remote areas. And while we may not be able to appreciate the depth of their struggles, we make sure we’re there to support their professional growth; this means helping struggling employees with vital access to resources like an internet connection and the use of company laptops. 

As a language company built on heart-centred values, we strive to create a common ground between tradition and the modern environment so that women have a fair chance of personal and professional success. 

Dania Alsaheb, General Manager at e-Arabization is exemplary of our company vision. Dania’s own humble beginnings at e-Arabization began with a role as an editor. Proving herself to be an ambitious, smart woman, she became a project manager, then a translation manager, and finally, a partner! We recognise talent, and we reward it with recognition and care because that’s what good business is about; the people at its very heart. 

 

The truth is, every single employee we hire, female or male, has an incredible contribution to make to the language industry. We serve a global need, and every single day, we connect millions of people to content in a language that speaks to them. Serving women in Jordan is an honour, and we’re thrilled with the community that’s grown out of the work we do. 

 

“Women are not just employees. They can be owners, entrepreneurs, whatever they want to be. The sky’s the limit! “

- Dareen Mukhaimer, founder of e-Arabization