The Dynamics of The Social Representation of Working Women, Value Transformation and the Continuity of the Gender Model

Abstract

This study examines the dynamics of social representation of working women by exploring the relationship between value transformation and the persistence of gendered models in the Algerian professional context. It addresses the question of whether women's growing participation in paid employment is accompanied by a corresponding transformation in the meanings and values that structure their social status.

       The study adopts a descriptive-analytical approach grounded in social representations theory.

       Fieldwork was conducted in two institutions in the education and health sectors in Constantine, Algeria, using a purposive sample 31 participants. Data were collected through a free-association network and differentiation questionnaire, enabling the analysis of the semantic content of representation as well as polarity and stereotypy indicators.

      The findings reveal a strong presence of values associated with financial independence, ambition, self-assertion and freedom alongside the continued centrality of family responsibilities and gendered stereotypes. They further indicate that some emerging values, particularly independence and ambition, remain subjected to symbolic reservation

that constrain their full social legitimacy, the study concludes that representations of working women do not reflect a straightforward transition from a traditional to a modern model, rather, they reveal dynamic reconfiguration in wich emerging values coexist with persistent of social negotiation over the legitimate boundaries of women's professional agency.