The Unholy Trinity: How State, Religion, and Employers Shape Pious Women's Employment

Séance organisée par l'axe Travail, Emploi et Profession le 20 mai de 10h à 12h

Présentation de Prof. Michal Frenkel, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Department of Sociology and Anthropology :
The Unholy Trinity: How State, Religion, and Employers Shape Pious Women's Employment.

Résumé :

Can secular states and employers integrate devotee women from conservative communities in modern organizations without jeopardizing their religious identity? With the growing presence of ultra-disciplinary and gender-conservative religions in the postindustrial society, the mission of integrating devotee women from these groups into high-quality employment is becoming both more urgent and more complicated. Claiming to represent God’s will in imposing a gendered division of labor, conservative denominations of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism equip their female members with sets of values and norms standing at odds with the requirements of most modern organizations.

Against religious leaders’ claims, historical studies demonstrate that these norms were often constructed and reconstructed in broader sociopolitical and economic contexts and are therefore more dynamic and negotiable than they are usually percived. In this paper, I draw on the case of Ultraorthodox women’s integration into the Israeli labor market to develop a theoretical approach to the study of gender-religiosity intersectionality. I first look into how modern states, employers, and institutionalized religions construct the matrix of domination that structures devotee women’s marginalization in the labor market. Then, I consider how the same matrix also offers women a ground for an agency that allows them to rise through the ranks while maintaining their religious identities and legitimate places in their communities.

Si vous souhaitez y assister, merci de contacter Samia Ben.