PALESTINIAN SOCIETY - Fafo

saleable jewelry. Table 10.11 represents married women by age
owning jewelry.
A possible reading of the above table is that, over time, women' s
dowry jewelry is gradually dissipated as various investments for the
family, husband or ehildren. This process seems to begin when
women are in theirthirties when eosts aeerue due to children. Judging
by the extent of jewelry ownership among women in their sixties,
repayment on women's investment does not take plaee in kind.
In terms of regional differenee among married women, 71 % of
Jerusalem married women claim to own saleable jewelry, eompared
to 55% of West Bank women and a eomparatively lower percentage
(37 %) of women living in Gaza. However, this may be a product of
the wealth differences between the three regions. When crossed by
wealth eategories, logically women in the wealthiest category exhibit
greater ownership of saleable jewelry.
Table 10.12 represents women' s ownership of jewelry in relation
to urban/rural residenee:
The table shows that among married women in Gaza villages and
towns (other than Gaza City) there is substantially less ownership of
jewelry than in the other areas, which show a fairly even distribution8•
This is surprising, given the faet that in tenns of age distribution, this
area has higher numbers of young married women in the sample -
women of the age and marital status that are most likely to have
saleable jewelry. Moreover, this does not seem to be related to wealth
Table 10.11 Married women owning jewelry. By age. Percentage
15-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+ All
Yes 76 75 58 60 54 27 63
No 24 26 42 40 46 74 47
Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
N 49 253 166 134 72 50 725
Table 10.12 Married women 's ownership of saleable jewelry by
urban-rural dimension. Percentage
Gaza West Bank
City Town Camps Town Village Camps Arab Jerusalem
Yes 62 33 62 70 69 (43) 75
No 38 67 38 30 31 (57) 25
Total 100 100 100 100 100 (100) 100
N 91 84 96 139 229 27 58
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