PALESTINIAN SOCIETY - Fafo

played out in the work plaee, an arena in whieh women' s participation
is minimal.
Age and edueation also affeets pereeption of e o nfliet, but again
these variables have very different impaets for men and women.
For men pereeptions of eonfliet in general are not signifieantly
altered by increased education. More than any otherfactor, they seem
to be determined by age - the old reporting more intense degrees of
eonfliet than the young. In faet the very stabil it Y of men' s pereeption
of eonfliet, despite differentedueational and age leveIs, is unexpected.
For women the picture is very different. Their perception of confliet
seems much more influeneed by differentials in age and education.
While olderwomen are mueh more proneto reportconflict, the impact
of education greatly intensifies the pereeived pattern of conflict
among younger women. Partly this is explained by the faet that
educated women are more eertain in their attitudes. They make
specific ehoiees rather than stating that they simply cannot ehoose.
But their ehoices go overwhelming in t he direetion of observing the
world with a more aeute sense of severe confliet. The combined
impaet of age and education can also partly explain the conflictive
profiles of women in Arab Jerusalem, in which older, weU edueated
women are over-represented in relation to the Palestinian population
generally.
Significantly, eeonomic position seems to have little, if any,
impaet on perceptions of eonfliet, a result quite different from that
characteristie of Western dass based societies. This would seem to
indicate thatdass based attitudes and identifiejltions remain relatively
Table 9.6 Impact of background variables on perception of conflict
Men Women
Between Wealth Age Education Wealth Age
Rich and poor O ++ - O ++
Old and young
Employed and
unemployed
Management and
workers
O
O
O
+
O
+++
+
, . o "
O
++
O
O
O
++
+.+
++
Urban and rural
O O O O ++
Men and women O + O O +
+++ =
++
+ =
O
=
258
. .
very strong positive correlatlOn (more confllctlve)
'strong positive correlation
weak positiye correlation
no correlation
weak negative correlation (less conflictive)
Education
++
++
++
+++
O
++