| This study of identity development asks: how have married, Jewish, professional women integrated gender, profession, and ethnicity/religion?;Among the subjects were: a psychiatrist, a lawyer, a computer software engineer, a literary agent, a marketing executive, a financial planner, an accountant, three university professors, three college administrators, a graphic designer, a performing artist, a film archivist. The religious affiliations are: Modern Orthodox, Egalitarian, Conservative, Reform and unaffiliated.;Subjects were interviewed for one hour. Interviews were coded for references to Jewish, female, professional identities across the lifespan. Findings revealed that religiously observant professional women consider themelves good Jews if they are Jewishly learned. For non traditionally religious women success as a Jew means being an enabler. Some subjects viewed Jewish identity as ethnic while others describe Judiasm as a system of religious practices. All subjects agreed that Jewish values influenced them by making roles as wives and mothers dominate their lives. Professional roles caused fewer conflicts because they were aquired last. Additional findings across domains were: role models are important; there are interactions among the three identities; time constraints and gender discrimination present the greatest conflicts.;Interviews with seventeen women between 36 and 51 drew upon research examining women's struggles with autonomy and affiliation (Gilligan, 1982), women's definitions of self in relationships (Chodorow, 1978; Miller, 1976, 1984) and women's ways of learning (Belenkey et al., 1986). Further background came from research on the history of Jewish women in America (Baum, Hyman and Michel, 1976), Chesler's and Goodman's studies of women's issues with power (1976), literature on Jewish feminism and Orthodoxy (Greenberg, 1981) and on Jewish women and religious law (Lacks, 1980). Demographic studies by Peterson and Zill (1980) and Goldscheider (1985) supplied the rationale by indicating that 87% of Jewish women (18-29) in the U.S. have gone to college and 20% of those women have postgraduate degrees. Distinctions between Jewish identity and Jewish identification were provided by Herman (1977) and Himmelfarb (1982). |
