Backport PR #60195 on branch 2.3.x (BUG (string dtype): fix where() f… #20032

Job	Run time
Linux-32-bit	20m 15s
Linux-Musl	17m 58s
python-dev (macOS-13)	38m 35s
python-dev (macOS-14)	15m 50s
python-dev (ubuntu-22.04)	24m 12s
python-dev (windows-latest)	27m 2s
macos-13 actions-310.yaml	43m 21s
macos-13 actions-311.yaml	36m 52s
macos-13 actions-312.yaml	50m 14s
macos-13 actions-39.yaml	41m 25s
macos-14 actions-310.yaml	43m 36s
macos-14 actions-311.yaml	24m 13s
macos-14 actions-312.yaml	25m 46s
macos-14 actions-39.yaml	23m 16s
windows-latest actions-311.yaml	43m 43s
windows-latest actions-312.yaml	49m 6s
windows-latest actions-310.yaml	38m 43s
windows-latest actions-39.yaml	37m 15s
Copy-on-Write 3.10 (warnings)	28m 31s
Copy-on-Write 3.10	29m 35s
ubuntu-latest actions-310.yaml	53m 54s
ubuntu-latest actions-311.yaml	49m 28s
Locale: zh_CN	27m 53s
Copy-on-Write 3.11	27m 34s
Future infer strings (without pyarrow)	48m 30s
Copy-on-Write 3.11 (warnings)	28m 19s
Locale: it_IT	29m 35s
Downstream Compat	5m 52s
Numpy Dev	23m 9s
Pyarrow Nightly	24m 9s
ubuntu-latest actions-312.yaml	35m 26s
Future infer strings	42m 2s
Copy-on-Write 3.12	31m 21s
ubuntu-latest actions-39.yaml	48m 49s
Copy-on-Write 3.9 (warnings)	29m 11s
Copy-on-Write 3.9	28m 49s
Minimum Versions	28m 2s
Pypy	7m 54s
	20h 29m 25s

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