Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

This research looks at how women navigate their motives and careers in non-traditional work with regards to norms. Forty-two women from various occupations, socioeconomic classes, and formal and informal sectors in Amman, Jordan were interviewed. Vignettes were presented to encourage discussion on topics of job choice, norms about women in the workplace, and work experience. The interviews revealed that through daily interactions women negotiate with families, male colleagues, and institutionalised norms to change perceptions about suitable sectors and work hours. The extent that the women navigated their careers around these structural factors differed by class, occupation, and sector. Where some women found niches in their area of work and created enclaves that complied with social norms, other women chose to further engage in non-traditional work and directly challenged social norms by entering construction worksites, working in male dominated workplaces, and taking on night shifts.