Women Plumbers in Jordan Are Breaking Taboos

Humiliating. Not a woman’s job. Shame on the family.

Such comments were frequently directed at Tahani Al Shati and Yusra Mohammad Nmour when they started training as plumbers. In Jordan, the proportion of women in paid work is among the lowest in the world, due in large part to social and cultural norms. Entering the workforce is already a challenge for many — never mind breaking into a field dominated by men. 

Al Shati recalls one day when she and some fellow trainees spotted a pipe leaking water onto the street. They pulled out their tools to try to stop the spillage. But a female passerby saw them and began scolding them. Tensions mounted, but the trainees carried on working. In one of the world’s driest countries, preventing water loss was ultimately more important.

Today, Al Shati and Nmour are among hundreds of fully certified female plumbers in Jordan. Speaking in Amman, the capital city, through a translator, they say this unconventional career has provided life-changing confidence and independence, plus opportunities to travel their country while training other women. “My husband and kids are so proud. My neighbors envy me now,” says Nmour. 

A different service 

Over the past 20 years or so, various training projects have targeted women in Jordan, offering options from basic skills in installing water-saving devices at home to professional plumbing qualifications. Some of these also target Syrian refugees: Jordan is a major host of refugee populations.

German government aid agency GIZ has trained more than 260 women as part of its focus on water resource management. Water scarcity is a big issue in Jordan — partly due to geographical and environmental factors, but also because half the country’s total water supply is lost each year through leaks and theft. Involving women in water resource management makes sense, explains Hind Alshdaifat, a water and sanitation advisor with GIZ, as they can spread awareness and expertise among others, young and old. “Women are the main users [of water]. They use water in the houses. They are teachers. They are mothers,” she says. 

Some of the plumbers, including Al Shati and Nmour, have joined forces as part of the Wise Women Plumbers Cooperative, formed in 2014. Working together helps ensure safety and financial stability, plus opportunities to bid for larger projects. With around 40 registered members, the cooperative provides services in schools, mosques and government buildings, according to Al Shati and Nmour. Its members also serve households — where they offer a significant advantage over their male counterparts. That’s because a female customer needing a plumber might have to wait for her husband to return from work, as it would not be considered acceptable for her to be alone with another man in their house.

Khawla Sheikh, who became Jordan’s first licensed female plumber in 2006 and was later one of the first female trainers recruited by GIZ, has long sought to encourage more women into the trade. (Sheikh was initially part of the Wise Women Plumbers Cooperative, but left shortly afterwards following a disagreement.) Male plumbers, assuming housewives don’t know any better, might take advantage by doing more work than necessary, she says. Or, as Nmour puts it, they “overreact and overprice.” Women take time to explain to customers what they’ve fixed, and to offer advice, she says — for example, on which harmful cleaning products to avoid. 

Training doesn’t always lead to paid work: When Sheikh took a course with 15 other women in 2004, none of the others took it further, she says, because of the “shame of culture.” But she was determined to continue. She was able to work with her husband, an engineer who runs his own company, for two years, to build up the practical experience needed before securing her license. “I was lucky … without his support I would never be as I am now,” says Sheikh. Still, even those who don’t enter the trade benefit from learning to make simple repairs, which means saving money, Sheikh notes: “Even if she doesn’t want to work as a plumber, she can still help herself at home.”

Changing perceptions

Those women who do work in the trade are challenging long-established social norms. While Jordan performs well on some measures of gender equality — more than half of university graduates are women — others are much less positive. The female workforce participation rate is less than 15 percent (compared with more than 60 percent for men), and female professionals earn 33 percent less than their male counterparts. In the Global Gender Gap Index 2024, which looks at various areas including the labor market, political leadership and health, Jordan ranked 123rd out of 146 countries.

For Sheikh, a key benefit of women learning to be plumbers is in changing perceptions among younger generations. She recalls a woman she had trained recounting that her five-year-old son had seen her one morning fixing a faucet. “I told her, you are sending two messages,” says Sheikh: not only showing him how to fix things himself, but also demonstrating what kind of work mothers can do. Alshdaifat also notes this influence on younger people: She knows several women plumbers whose daughters are looking to enter the trade now, too.

Women plumbers have also attracted some high-profile attention. Princess Basma Bint Talal of Jordan has shown her support, as have both Queen Rania and King Abdullah II, says Sheikh. She was even introduced to British royalty during a visit to Jordan in 2021. 

A mixed picture

Training up women plumbers has multiple benefits, says Alshdaifat, including boosting their income and reducing water usage and bills for their customers. (GIZ does not have more specific data on the project’s impact.) 

Recently the Wise Women also trained deaf and blind men and women in basic household plumbing skills. Alshdaifat, who attended one of the sessions, says she sensed the participants’ pride afterwards. One described the course as one of few opportunities available to do something outside her home; another talked of surprising her parents with her new skills. Training materials are now available in sign language and in braille. 

GIZ has only supported two training courses for people with disabilities — the hope is that other donors will fund more, says Alshdaifat. That reflects a wider issue: While many international donors, non-governmental organizations and Jordanian government bodies have supported training, often this is through time-limited projects. Asked about current challenges, Al Shati says she and her colleagues need further training to keep up with the modern technology now being adopted by many customers; the women cannot afford to pay for training and GIZ is no longer funding this area. 

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Nmour highlights another ongoing challenge for self-employed workers — a drop in requests for services in recent months. And overall, the prospects for women in trades like plumbing remain mixed. Ahmad Awad, founder and director of the Phenix Center for Economic and Informatics Studies in Amman, says there has been “noticeable growth” in women’s participation in non-traditional professions in recent years, such as carpentry and appliance repair. Many families now prefer hiring women for tasks traditionally performed by men, he says. But societal resistance, lack of funding for tools and training, and limited marketing to drive visibility of women’s services are all preventing further growth.

But Alshdaifat sees the continued presence in the market of the Wise Women and other female plumbers as an achievement in itself. “With their insistence, with their power, they managed to stay alive … even though [there have been] different projects and different donors,” she says. That’s in large part thanks to the women gaining a government-recognized license, she believes, which makes them “feel more sustainable and more powerful.” 

Al Shati suggests that their presence — and their refusal to listen to those early critics — is impacting other sectors, too: “We broke this shame culture … I believe we opened the door to a lot of women to have the courage.”

The post Women Plumbers in Jordan Are Breaking Taboos appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful.

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