Few opportunities for educated women Education paves the way for change and is held in high regard by Palestinians, so Palestinian women tend to be well educated. In the academic year 2010/2011, girls accounted for around half of all students enrolled at Palestinian schools, making up 49.5% of the primary school population and 54.2% of secondary school students. Last year’s statistics show an even stronger female presence in higher education, where 57.2% of students were young women. Among graduates, too, women form a clear majority – around 60% in the academic year 2008/2009. The figures reveal that the percentage of female students rises with the level of education. One of the reasons is that many men go abroad to study while women tend to stay at local universities. However, there is also marked difference in the subjects male and female students choose. Although Palestinian women have massively improved their levels of education in recent years, they still tend to focus on teaching, the humanities and social sciences, which are traditionally considered appropriate for women. This gender-based split is already evident in the courses chosen at secondary schools. Development professionals like to emphasise the economic importance of women’s education. In Palestine, this does not necessarily apply. Although Palestinian women perform better at school and university, men outnumber them in working life by more than four to one. In 2010, 41% of those over the age of 15 were in gainful employment across the Palestinian territories – 67% of men and 15% of women. Paradoxically, unemployment among Palestinian women increases with the level of their education. In 2010, 36.3% of women with more than 13 years of education were registered as unemployed; in the case of women with no education at all, the figure was just 1.5%. A woman’s job opportunities are thus obviously diminished, not enhanced, by education and training. Qualifications unused As a result, many women with higher-education degrees accept jobs that are below their level of qualification. At the time of writing, female graduates in Gaza were digging wells for farmers in order to make ends meet. Talented young women file away their certificates, and go to work in the fields at the crack of dawn. They know they have no chance of working as academics, but they can contribute to the household income as unskilled day-labourers. Women who do manage to succeed in the job market work mostly in traditional female occupations like education (34.7%), farming, forestry, hunting and fishing (20.5%) and healthcare (9.4%). But even in these areas, they tend to be in the more lowly positions. In healthcare, for instance, women account for more than half of the nursing staff, but only for around 14% of the doctors. Inequality is also reflected in pay. From the service sector to the public sector and private enterprise, men receive higher wages and salaries than their female colleagues with the same qualifications. This, of course, is not a specifically Arab or Palestinian problem. But in a country like Palestine, it means that households headed by women are particularly likely to be poor. Women’s prospects in working life are really not rosy. Even so, Palestinian women have achieved great changes in recent years. For one thing, their efforts have helped influence legislation. Article 25 of the Palestinian Basic Law, the national constitution, includes a formal guarantee of equality in job opportunities for men and women. As we know from other countries, however, theory and practice are often worlds apart.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 06:51:59 +0000
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