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Record number of ultra-Orthodox women join Israeli workforce

More and more Israeli ultra-Orthodox women turn to computer programming, accounting, entrepreneurship and other jobs instead of traditional positions in the education system.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish women work on computers in the central city of Holon on April 17, 2016.
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish women work on computers at their desks at the Comax software office in the central city of Holon near Tel Aviv on April 17, 2016. — MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images

The rate of employment among ultra-Orthodox Jewish women reached an all-time record in the final quarter of 2021, catching up with the rate among non-Orthodox Israeli women at 83%, according to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics. These are impressive numbers given that the government-set target for 2020 was only 63% and that employment among another highly conservative Israeli minority, Arab women, has seen slight improvement but is generally stagnant at 40.5%.

The trumpeted achievement notwithstanding, we wish to spoil the party a bit.

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