Attitudes Towards Women's Appropriate Work Roles

As has become apparent in other areas of analysis in this chapter, the larger context of political and economic structures and processes delimit the boundaries of action and experience in the occupied territories. Simultaneously, for women, their ability to make decisions and to act within this context tend to be mediated by the social factors of especially age and marital status.

Thus, when analyzing women's attitudes towards a wide variety of social and political issues, it is time and diversity of life experience that most clearly seems to shape women's vision of themselves.
Tables 10.22 - 10.25 depict women's perceptions of the appropriate working roles for women and other work-related issues by age.

Table 10.22 Is it acceptable for women to work outside the house? By age. Percentage

	15-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60+	All
Yes	71	87	66	78	77	76	77
No	28	12	31	21	21	18	21
Do not know	1	1	3	1	2	6	2
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
N	258	364	219	155	94	128	1218

Table 10.23 Is it acceptable for women to run a business? By age. Percentage

	15-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60+	All
Yes	50	62	48	54	52	43	53
No	50	36	50	45	46	45	44
Do not know	0	2	2	1	2	12	3
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
N	258	364	219	155	94	128	1218

Table 10.24 Would you like your daughter to work in a professional job14? By age. Percentage

	15-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60+	All
Yes	82	91	84	88	85	78	86
No	9	7	12	11	15	8	10
Do not know	9	2	4	1	1	13	5
Total	100	100	100	100	101	101	101
N	229	350	208	154	92	121	1154

Table 10.25 Is it acceptable for women to put their children in daycare? By age. Percentage

	15-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60+	All
Yes	46	59	58	64	67	60	57
No	52	39	41	31	31	31	40
Do not know	2	2	1	5	2	10	3
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
N	258	364	219	155	94	128	1218

In looking at the totals for the four questions raised, it is clear that a great majority of women (77%) support the general right or appropriateness of women to work outside the home. But what seems to be more important is the actual type of work; while only 53% of women support the idea of women working in business, 86% would like their daughters to hold a professional job. This apparent ambivalence towards women working in business is probably rooted in its association with the tradition of indigenous mercantilism which has historically been viewed as a male domain.
The contradictory nature of women's feelings towards their primary identity (wife and mother versus working women) becomes most clear when looking at their responses to the issues of daycare. Out of all the issues raised, women's right to put their children in daycare (a prerequisite for many women to work) is supported by 57% of all women. When broken down by marital status it becomes clear that married women (63%) are more supportive of this right than unmarried women (46%); and women with children are much more supportive (62%) than women without children (20%). Thus, when daycare is an actual need rather than an abstract idea, women are much less reticent about it.

In general, when looking at attitudes across age categories, the usual assumption is that the older individuals are, the more 'conservative' they are on social issues. This is especially true when dealing with the issue of women and work in the Middle East, which usually assumes that a 'traditional' ideology about women's privatization and modesty slowly became superseded by 'modern' ideologies about women's right to education and work - suggesting that younger women tend to be 'modern' while older women are 'traditional'. However, the above tables make clear that such a conceptualization is too simplistic. On both the issues of the acceptability of women working outside the home and putting their children in daycare, women in the oldest age category seem more 'modern' than women in their teens. Women in the 60+ age category display dispositions similar to those of women in their forties and fifties.

Perhaps the most interesting comparison is the regular difference in attitudes between the age groups 15 to 19 and 20 to 29. On every issue, the youngest age group of women is consistently more conservative than women in their twenties. The important point lies not so much in the degree of difference on the attitudes between these first two age groups, but in the regularity of the differences. This suggests that there might be a larger set of interrelated ideas about women's correct role in society that has had an impact on the young women who came of age during the past few years of the intifada. Stated more directly, the data seems to vindicate observations that there has been a general social retrenchment during the intifada, with women in their teens being most affected by new conservative ideologies.

Tables 10.26 and 10.27 provide an estimate of two of these attitudes, according to age and region.
When comparing age categories and women in West Bank and Gaza respectively, the two points which stand out are: in Gaza, the strong difference between teenagers and women in their twenties; and, in the West Bank, the strong difference between women in their twenties and thirties.
In the West Bank educational achievement explains some of the difference between these two age categories, with women in their twenties being substantially better educated than women in their thirties. Even when controlled for education, a higher percentage of West Bank women in their twenties find it acceptable that married women work outside the house.

Table 10.26 Percentage who answers "yes" to the question: Is it acceptable for women to work outside the house? By age and region.

	15-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60+	All
Gaza	64	84	74	78	(71)	75	74
N	111	108	84	55	24	42	424
West Bank	76	87	58	78	80	75	77
N	124	222	116	88	59	79	687

Table 10.27 Percentage who answers "yes" to the question: Is it acceptable for women to put their children in daycare? By age and region

	15-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60+	All
Gaza	45	65	70	63	(58)	52	59
N	111	108	84	55	24	42	424
West Bank	50	58	52	65	71	64	58
N	124	222	116	88	59	79	687

Overall, there are no differences between women living in Gaza and the West Bank when it comes to the question of daycare.

Daycare centers on a large and affordable level (run by women's committees and charitable societies) have only come into general usage over the past 15 years in the occupied territories. Thus, their usage and acceptance would be expected to be greater among women in the first three age groups, who would have had children of pre-school ages during this same period. While in Gaza, women in these younger age groups are somewhat more supportive, in the West Bank there is a surprisingly higher support among women in the upper age categories. In both regions, women in the teen years are the least supportive of daycare.

In conclusion, in both West Bank and especially in Gaza, there is evidence that women in their teen years are more conservative than are women in their twenties towards the range of issues pertaining to women's appropriate working role in society. Despite this, the majority of women support the notion of women working outside the home, but their support increases when the type of work specified is 'respectable', i.e. professional work.

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