More Jewish, Less Jewish: Implications for Education and Labor Force Characteristics

Gender and American Jews: Patterns in Work, Education, and Family in Contemporary Life

“…The lower education of the never married is partially related to their younger age, so that a relatively high proportion of them have not yet completed their education. The lower education level of the divorced or separated may be related to the greater likelihood that divorced men and women with a higher education will remarry, whereas the less educated may remain divorced (a similar pattern was found among Jews in 1990; see Hartman and Hartman, 1996a). Only 40.9% of widowed Jews have at least a bachelor's degree, which results from most of them being older than 55 and, as we noted earlier, the educational attainment of that age group is lower.…”

“…Such economic roles are facilitated by a relatively low rate of fertility, which reduces the familial obligations that constrain the pursuit of higher education and participation in the labor force. Despite their high level of education, labor force participation, and occupational status relative to other U.S. women, the 1990 NJPS data revealed a persistent gender gap in occupational achievement between Jewish women and Jewish men (Hartman and Hartman, 1996a).…”

“…We built on a previous study we had done, Gender Equality and American Jews (Hartman and Hartman, 1996a), using data from 1990. Then, too, we compared the educational achievement and economic roles of American Jewish men and women and related them to "Jewishness," in an attempt to explore whether there was a "Jewish" pattern of gender differences in secular achievement.…”

“…In 1990, American Jewish women had higher labor force participation rates than many of their counterparts in the broader population, especially among women 45 and older; as a result, the gender differences between the labor force participation rates of Jewish men and women were smaller than they were in the broader U.S. population (Hartman and Hartman, 1996a, Jewish women's labor force participation was much more similar to that of the broader population, and gender differences were quite similar in both populations. In fact, in the 55-64 age group, men and women in the broader population were more similar in their labor force participation than were American Jews.…”

Work-Family Conflict: The Effects of Religious Context on Married Women’s Participation in the Labor Force

“…This religious discourse creates a framework for women to make sense of and understand gender roles, ideal family arrangements and responsibilities within the family, and is well documented [9][10][11]23,24,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. These gender roles communicate normative expectations that include an understanding of the specific roles and responsibilities for both the man and the woman within the family [10,11].…”