GENDER, RELIGION AND STATE IN ISRAEL: THE MYTH OF EQUALITYKimberly D. Gouz

Declaration of Independence

May 14, 1948 THE STATE OF ISRAEL . . . will ensure

complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex

The Status of Women

The marginalized status of women has been maintained primarily through two elements: Jewish Orthodoxy National Security

The Myth of Equality Pre-state experience of widespread anti-

Semitism Labor Zionism commitment to social equality

“These young women Zionists dreamed of engaging in battle and sacrifice for the ideal of redemption, even while still in the diaspora” –Sara Malchin, a founder of the women’s movement

Golda Meir Conscription of women into the army

The Myth of Equality

Jewish soldiers from Palestine who volunteered to serve in the British Army.Palestine, 1942

Member of Haganah, pre-state Jewish paramilitary organization

David Ben-Gurion with Golda Meir at the Knesset in Jerusalem, 1962.

Debunking the Myths: The Pre-State Experience

Value of collective Women not permitted to fit into halutz

role, relegated to second-class status Problem of employment Men’s jobs “unnatural” The training gap

Debunking the Myths: The Pre-State Experience

The kvutza Secondary roles Need for proof of economic validity, women

viewed as less productive In the early years, not full members

Contracts with the Zionist Organization Women work for members of kvutzot Zionist Organization concerned with farm not kitchen

Debunking the Myths: The Pre-State Experience

1909 165 Jewish workers in kvutzot in the Galilee 11 were women

1912 522 Jewish workers in kvutzot in Judea 30 were women

Numbers rose during war years Sources: Even Shoshan, Workers’ Movement; y. Shapira,

Work and Land—Fifty Years of the Histadrut of Agricultural Workers; A. Maimon, Women Workers’ Movement in Eretz Israel

Debunking the Myths: The Pre-State Experience

“My first six weeks in Palestine, I worked in Degania [a kvutza established in 1909]. I listened with such admiration as the men spoke of their work tools and sounded the names of corn yields. My soul yearned to be in contact with the soil, to work the land, but that was not granted me, nor to any other women.”

(Quoted in “Zionist Women’s Movement in Palestine” by Dafna N.

Izraeli)

Debunking the Myths: But what about Golda? Women and Political Power

For a long time, highest point of representation: Second Elected Assembly of the Yishuv, 1925 15% of delegates Before women officially gained right to vote

Only matched in Sixteenth Knesset (2003) 18 female Knesset members or15%

Debunking the Myths: But what about Golda?

Women and Political Power First 14 Knesset Governments (through 1999)

Between seven (5.8 percent) and 12 (10 percent) seats

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts%20About%20Israel/State/Women%20in%20Public%20Life

Israel ranked 83rd of 135 countries in Inter-Parliamentary Union's ranking for number of women legislators http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/964171.html

The current Knesset dropped to 17 women (14.2 percent) http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mkindexbyknesset

_eng.asp?knesset=17

Women and Jewish Orthodoxy

The Status-Quo Agreement “A compromise between socialist men and

Orthodox men, at the expense of women” - Swirski and Safir, 1993

Religious court system women not judged by peers

Women and Jewish Orthodoxy

The Status-Quo Agreement Divorce

The get Agunot Mamzerim

A Woman’s National Duty “We are told that women are not drafted in

any other army in the world. We, too, have no intention of putting women into combat units, though no one can be sure that, should we be attacked and have to fight for our lives, we would not call on the services of every man and woman. But the law in question deals with a peacetime situation, and we want to give women only the most basic training.”

- David Ben-Gurion, 1972

A Woman’s National Duty

Only about 1,500 women have combat jobs—2.5 percent of female conscripts, according to IDF figures

“Female” designations: Desk jobs, social work, teaching and secretarial positions

Men serve 3 years, women serve 2 “The Old Boy’s Club”

A Woman’s National Duty The 1952 Military Service Law

Exceptions to women (but not men) from military service based on religious belief

1977 coalition agreement between Likud and the religious parties concession that women be allowed to receive

exemptions from military service on the basis of sworn statements

About one-third of female conscripts (more than double the figure of men) are exempted on the grounds of religion

A Woman’s National Duty

1994 Alice Miller Supreme Court case 23-year-old who wanted to be a pilot but

was barred by air force regulations. Won case Failed the medical tests after getting high

grades on the aptitude test. Israel's first woman fighter pilot: Roni

Zuckerman in 2001 at age 20

A Woman’s National Duty Sasson-Levy study

Ethnographic, 12 women serving in “masculine” roles “The ‘good citizen’ is the Jewish male who has served

in a combat role and has proved his willingness to risk his life for the collective good. Therefore, the masculinity of the combat soldier has achieved a hegemonic status.”

Women comprise only 32 percent of the regular army 30 percent in secretarial jobs

A Woman’s National Duty

Sasson-Levy study cont . . . Those who do achieve high-status roles

construct alternative gender identities Mimicry of combat soldiers bodily and discursive

practices Differentiation from traditional femininity Trivialization of sexual harassment

Dual meaning: Assert identity, reject gender roles Collaboration with military’s andocentric discourse

A Woman’s National Duty

Producer of next generation of soldiers The “war of the wombs”

“Increasing the Jewish birthrate is a vital need for the existence of Israel, and a Jewish woman who does not bring at least four children into the world . . . Is defrauding the Jewish mission”

- David Ben-Gurion