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Career Development Among Palestinian Academic Women in Israel
This research about academic Israeli-Palestinian women careerists aims to identify the barriers and the potential for their integration in the labor market, including key positions. It seeks to add another layer of knowledge regarding their status in the Israeli labor force, and to shed light on the considerations standing behind their career choices.
Most Research regarding minority women’s career development point out the close intertwining of external and internal barriers – at work, at home, and in women’s attitudes, which typically result in limited opportunities for professional development and promotion, lower wages, and reduced spheres of authority. In the case at hand, these barriers are increasing due to the intersection of gender and ethno-nationality. Yet despite multiple obstacles, women’s growing integration into professional careers is crucial in strengthening their bargaining power in the family and in society, in improving families and women’s economic wellbeing, and in raising women’s self-esteem and overall sense of satisfaction. The project will identify the challenges and obstacles as perceived and experienced by women at three major stages of a career track: (orientation, entrance and initial establishment, promotion) and explore their strategizing in each respective stage. The cultural factor will be explored through the schema of the patriarchal gender contract as it affects the full domestic-public work range.
Semi-structured interviews with 45 women of three different professions( Hi-Tech , Medicine, Law) from three career junctions ( Orientations ,entrance , promotion) were used to gain experience-near understanding of women’s perceived opportunities and pragmatic responses.
Focusing on minority women with high human capital advances a complex understanding of intersectionality as creating potential alongside disadvantages and it illustrates the combined operation of gender and ethnic barriers in competitive work arenas.