Arab/Middle Eastern North African (MENA) Women's Experiences of Infantilization, Burnout, and Job Satisfaction in the Workplace

Arab/Middle Eastern North African (AMENA) women face mistreatment in professional spaces; however, research is limited. We argue that gender harassment exacerbates experiences of burnout in the workplace, negatively influencing job satisfaction. In addition, we argue that AMENA women's experiences of gender harassment likely function as an additional job demand, heightening the influence of burnout on job satisfaction. Data were collected from 128 AMENA women on gender harassment, exhaustion, and satisfaction with pay, promotion, and supervision. Muslim AMENA women reported less supervisor satisfaction compared with Christian and nonreligious AMENA women. We also found that infantilization was the key type of gender harassment that predicted job satisfaction. Last, infantilization moderated the relationship between exhaustion and satisfaction with pay. When exhaustion was high, AMENA women experiencing high levels of infantilization were less satisfied with pay than AMENA women experiencing less infantilization. Both exhaustion and infantilization were directly related to less satisfaction with promotion and supervision for AMENA women. Implications are discussed for human resources professionals and consultants.