A radio episode on the paper «Women's professional work between need and society's gaze»

The researcher Areej Jareed said that society's view and the wage disparity between man and woman are challenges facing the Palestinian woman's entry into professional work. This came during the discussion of a research paper on women's professional work, during a radio episode within the programme “Youth Creations”, broadcast on the local Zaman radio — within the project “Research writings in gender and feminism”, implemented by Pal-Think for Strategic Studies with funding from the Government of Canada.

She added: “The greatest impediment to women's work is the prevailing stereotyped idea and the extent of the woman's acceptance of the idea of facing it and standing firm before it. The economic situation is another obstacle that may cause the woman's professional failure — among it the wage disparity compared with the effort she exerts and the hours she spends at work, which leads to thinking of stopping.”

For her part, Ashwaq Rahmi, projects coordinator at the University Women Graduates Association, pointed out that the fields women can enter in the Gaza Strip are very limited, although the number of women surpasses men.

She said: “Time will see to it that society accepts women's work, but women must work to impose themselves. And the communal view changes if the woman succeeds in the fields of professional work.”

Rahmi affirmed that placing vocational subjects as school curricula would change society's view of women, calling on civil society institutions to press toward this matter.

For her part, the researcher and participant in producing the paper, Haneen al-Amassi, said the paper's fundamental goal is shedding light on the gap between the traditional role and the new role the woman represents outside the home.

She reviewed successful experiences of women in their work, such as: the engineer Majd al-Mashharawi, who directs a company aiming to provide electric power from the sun's rays; Salma al-Najjar, who works at a fuel station; Huda Khattab, the first woman to open a mobile-phone shop in Gaza; and Ruba Abu al-Eish, who runs a bakery.

As for the mechanisms of overcoming the challenges facing women in professional work, al-Amassi said: “We need educational programmes to raise society's awareness of women's professional work through the media in all its forms — radio, television, and social media — and awareness courses on its importance; improving the conditions of women's professional work by preparing social- and health-insurance systems; and providing bodies of financial and moral support for women working in the professions.”

The designations used and the presentation of materials in this programme entail no expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Government of Canada