Facing Barriers

Palestinian women have slowly become active in the formal labor market in Israel. In this book, Vered Kraus and Yuval Yonay describe and analyse the labor experience of these Palestinian women, and explain why Palestinian and Jewish women have different rates and outcomes in the labor market. Challenging popular views that ascribe these differences to Arab culture and Islam, they instead find that it is state policies and widespread discrimination that hinder Palestinian women's participation and success. By including the various Palestinian sub-groups - Muslims, Bedouins, Druze, Christians, non-citizen residents of Jerusalem - this book shows how the specific life circumstances of the women from these subgroups affect their employment and achievements. The book thus enriches the acute discussion on the labour market experiences of Muslim and Arab women in the Middle East and North Africa and in advanced industrialized societies.