“a High-Tech Job Is a Dream”: Druze Pious Women with High-Tech Careers Bridge between Their Religious and Professional Identities

The paper examines the Lotus initiative as an NGO, aimed at developing a high-quality, professional workspace for Druze pious women in their villages. Based on observations, group discussions and semi-structured interviews with female high-tech employees, religious leaders, and employers, I will argue that this NGO’s initiative created a high-quality workspace, which offers women the opportunity to integrate into the labor market while still maintaining their religious identity. The establishment of the Lotus workspace was enabled due to the negotiation held by Lotus' female leader with four groups of stakeholders – civil society, high-tech companies, Druze religious leadership and the women employed by this venture. One of the insights from this study is that while adapting the workspace to the needs of pious Druze women (gender segregation and geographic separation) allows women to integrate into the labor market, it also creates a glass ceiling, which limits their professional advancement.