Psychological Capital and Labor Market Participation of Arab Women in Israel

AbstractThis paper analyzes the psychological capital of Israeli Arab women and its role in their labor market activity. Arab women are the least active group in the Israeli labor market, suffering from cooccurring and multifaceted employment barriers, including limited personal resources, gender and cultural barriers, discrimination, poor local labor market conditions, and more. The paper ’s central proposition states that psychological capital – i.e., hope, resilience, self-efficacy, and optimism – is a necessary prerequisite for individuals’ participation in the labor market. Two original studies were conducted. Study 1 used data from a nationwide survey for comparative obj ectives. Study 2, designed for deepening understanding of the objectives not met in Study 1, collected data from a non-random convenience sample. Study 1 indicates that Israeli Arab women, especially economically inactive women, have relatively and significantly low levels of psychological capital. Study 2 shows that this demographic engages in more behaviors defined asovercoming barriers thanlabor market-oriented activity. The data reveal that the level of psychological capital among the research demographic prepares them for removing barriers actions; however, it is not sufficiently high to encourage actively seeking employment. The authors conclude that in order to facilitate Israeli Arab women ’s transfer into economic activity, policymakers must expand existing employment interventions wi...
Source: Applied Research in Quality of Life - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research