Analyzing Gender-Based Financial Inclusion Disparities: A Comparative Study of Jordan and Arab Nations

Abstract Women's empowerment, is cornerstone for societal and economic development, is especially in the Arab regions like Jordan, where the gender gap in labor market participation starkly highlights the challenges that women face. Many studies have addressed the gender gap (male-female gap), but little effort was given to the gap within female population. In Arab world, culture has tremendous effect on empowerment, assuming that sharing cultural values would bring similar challenges, therefore, the presented study uses the Global Findex 2021 data to explore the financial disparities between Jordanian women and their counterparts in the Arab world, using non-parametric Mann-Whitney U procedure of 6317 females across 13 Arab countries. Results suggested significant distinguish position of Jordan in economic empowerment despite shared cultural norms. While Jordan exhibits relative strengths in education and digital access to services but encounter significant challenges in converting these advancements into broader economic benefits and empowerment. Jordan has strong position compared to their counterparts in general except Saudi Arabia and UAE. It would be beneficial, to have a context-specific policy interventions to leverage the unique position of Jordan, foster women's economic participation and empowerment in Jordan and beyond, aligning with global efforts to enhance gender equality and promote sustainable development.