Obstacles to labour market participation among Arab Palestinian women in Israel

Abstract

Despite recent increases in educational attainment among Arab Palestinian women in Israel, their labour force participation rates continue to be below those of Jewish women. This study draws on data from the Israeli Labour Force Survey and Social Survey covering the period 1995–2016 to investigate whether this pattern can be explained by socio-economic and demographic factors, level of religiosity, human capital assets, family structure and related public policies, and early retirement. All these factors are found to affect the probability of Arab Palestinian women participating in the labour market, raising implications for labour market policies.