An-Najah Staff

This study aimed at identifying the degree of difficulties facing the Palestinian working women in the public sector in the northern West Bank governorates: Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm, Tobas, Qalqilya and Salfit. The domains of difficulties were social, administrative, political and legal. In addition, this study sought to find out the impact of several variables (ministry, marital status, place of work, number of children, place of residence, academic achievement, motivation for work, governorate, years of work and monthly income) on difficulties facing Palestinian working women in the public sector as perceived by the women themselves. The population of the study included all public sector women employees in the northern West Bank in 2005-2006. The total number of these employees was 10,660 distributed among the Palestinian ministries in the governorates concerned. The sample of the study, randomly chosen, totaled 746 women employees or 7% of total population. Of the total number of the sample, 550 or 74% responded to the questionnaire. The coefficient value of the total degree, according to Cronbach Alpha, was 0.93. For data collection, the researcher developed a 50-item questionnaire all dwelling on difficulties facing Palestinian working women in the public sector. The validity and reliability of the instrument were tested and found to be acceptable. Fourteen items of the questionnaire addressed family and social difficulties; 12 items dwelt on political difficulties; 12 items tackled administrative difficulties and the last 12 items dealt with legal difficulties. Furthermore, the questionnaire contained a domain consisting of 15 factors affecting the woman's work: family, society, superiors, colleagues, subordinates, laws, legislations, and roadblocks. These factors aimed at finding out the degree of their impact on her work in terms of being an impediment or a hindrance of her development professionally. The lowest rating given was zero (%). The highest rating was 10%. The questionnaire also included an open-ended question focusing on other difficulties. For statistical analysis or processing, the researcher used the following: frequencies, arithmetic means, standard deviations, percentages, One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Multi-Way Analysis of Variance, Wilk's Lambda, to compare among the study's dependent variables, Sidak's test, Scheffe's test and LSD test for comparisons.