Gender inequality in Israeli society is manifested at all levels of
life: scant representation of women in politics; a lower measure of
participation in the labor market than that of men; a minority of
women in positions of eco¬nomic and executive leadership;
legislation which in many cases does not impart equal rights and/or
confirms the state of inequality, and a gendered distribution of
domestic functions (Azmon and Izraeli, 1993).
Gender inequality is even more salient in everyday reality; even in
those areas where there is no discriminating legislation, and women
have entrance into the public space, inequality nonetheless
prevails. For instance, in spite of the reality of equal political
rights for men and women, women's representation at the various
centers of power is, at most, marginal.
Furthermore, even though discrimination against women in the job
market is prohibited by law, inequality prevails, and income
disparity between men and women in Israel has increased in recent
years. In addi¬tion there is an over-representation of women
in that section of the popu¬lation living below the poverty
line. These facts, and others, point to the existence of a
social-cultural reality of inequality, which proves even stronger
than legislation.
Public and Private
Gender inequality is supported in Western society by the conceived
sepa¬ration between private and public. An existence of two
life spheres, the pri¬vate and the public, which are greatly
distinguished from one another, is taken for granted. This
distinction is accompanied by cultural assump¬tions, whereby
each of the two spheres exists according to separate
social¬ization principles, and is intended to fulfill
different social functions. The accepted cultural assumptions are
that the public sphere meets economic and political needs; it is
structured on rational, matter-of-fact, and utilitar¬ian
principles and is controlled by formal contractual social
interactions. By contrast, the private sphere is the intimate area
of life, regulated by princi¬ples of mutuality, compromise,
concern and feeling. This distinction between the spheres is
paralleled by the dichotomy between the sexes, within whose
framework the home is conceived as the woman's "special¬ized"
zone, while the public sphere is conceived as the male zone.
Such cultural assumptions continue to exist in Israeli society in
spite of women's entrance into the public sphere. When these
cultural assumptions are not neutralized, but women enter the
public sphere, the result is that they are placed at a clearly
disadvantaged position: they are conceived of as entering an alien
sphere, and as unequipped with the requisite resources. In
addition, they are still expected to be responsible for
house¬hold management and for care of children. These ideas
shape society's images of gender roles, and also, to a large
extent, the gender's sexual iden¬tities. These concepts not
only determine the two sexes' preferences, but are also turned into
a factor impeding women's chances for promotion at work or in
politics, as well as in their bargaining ability in the labor
mar¬ket. In addition, such a role division produces woman's
dependency on man, which is, among other kinds, economic.
The concepts of the separation between private and public -
presented here in a high degree of generalization and simplicity -
are concepts which characterize modern Western society; yet in
Israel, they are juxtaposed with traditional ways of life and are
encouraged and reinforced as a consequence of the ongoing
Israeli-Arab conflict. This affects the importance of the
fam¬ily, and thus has a direct influence on women's status in
Israeli society.
The Importance of the Family
On the surface, public and private spheres are equally valuable
since they meet different needs and various functions. Yet in
actuality there is a hier¬archy wherein the public sphere
enjoys an advantage, and the family is subordinated to and
dependent on actions taken in that sphere. The separation between
private and public also corresponds to the traditional
con¬ceptions of Jewish society, on the one hand, and
Palestinian society, on the other (of course, given the variety and
singularity of each of these societies and the sub-groups within
them).
Yet unlike Western society, where the family's importance is in
decline, the family in Israeli society (Jewish and Palestinian)
still occupies a highly central place. Israel is a family-oriented
society (Katz and Peres, 1986). Although changes occur in the
structure of the family, the ethos of familism is still very
strong. The importance of the family in Israel stems from the
cultures of which it is comprised (Jewish and Arab), on the one
hand, and from the Israeli-Arab conflict, on the other. 1
Jewish Society
The Israeli-Arab conflict strengthens the Jewish family in that it
is used as a connecting link between the collective and the
individual recruited to military service, and at times of crisis,
also to war. The women identified with the family (in the private
sphere) are expected to furnish maximum support to "their men" and
sometimes even sacrifice their dearest (spouse or children), in
time of war. The shadow of war makes the family a
partic¬ularly important factor. In Western society, the
mother's main role ends when the children leave home, usually upon
graduation from high school and going to college. In peacetime, the
Israeli woman prolongs her role as a mother by two years, if she is
the mother of daughters - and by three years (and more) if she is
the mother of sons.
During these years, the woman's traditional roles are strengthened:
con¬cern for the (soldier) daughter or son is expressed by
washing and ironing the uniform, by preparing wholesome meals when
the children are on vacation "in order to give them the taste of
home," by baking cakes for the soldier to take with him/her on
his/her return to the army, and by driving (all over the country)
to visit the children at the military base. The family is conceived
of as the most important support for soldier-children.
The army's need for legitimation, which the family grants, has
increased in Israel since the Lebanon War, and has been reinforced
much further since the outbreak of the Intifada in 1987. As a
result, the cooperation between army and parents has been extended
(parents' days, an increased number of ceremonies in which they
participate, commanders' open-line to their appeals, and so on).
Such cooperation - coupled by parallel negotiation for the limits
of family interference - prolongs the duration of the family's
func¬tion vis-a-vis the mature children, introduces new
meaning into the life of the family (which otherwise might face a
crisis following the children's leaving and the weakening of "ties"
between the aging couple), and strengthens its importance for, and
power over, its members, as well as over the society. The
glorification of the family entails in turn a glorification of
women's tradition¬al roles - and with them, the preservation
of concepts of inequality.
Life in the shadow of war, apart from the impact of tradition,
encourages the creation of families with a larger number of
children than the average in Western countries, thus further
increasing woman's dependency on man.
Palestinian Society in Israel
In Palestinian society in Israel, too, the family has gained
additional rein¬forcement - beyond the traditional cultural
origins - from the conflict, and this has sustained the dominant
ideas about the inferior status of women. Due to its position on
the margins of Israeli society, and in light of the barriers of
cultural integration, the family turns to be the focus of both
national and social solidarity.
The changes in women's status in Palestinian society originate in
processes the society went through as a result of the conflict
(Mar'i, Miriam, 1989; Mar'i and Mar'i, 1991). With the
establishment of the State of Israel, the continuity in Palestinian
society was broken. Nearly all political and organizational
institutions collapsed, changes occurred in the eco¬nomic
structure, and the social structure was shaken. The vulnerability
of Palestinian men increased as a result of the loss of sources of
income; of prolonged absences from home (for outside work); of
exposure to a foreign culture and encounters with Israeli-Jewish
women (whose behavior was strange to them); and mainly because of
their dependency on Israeli rule and the threat it constitutes to
national identity. In this traumatic state, Palestinians stuck to
their cultural heritage. The central idea of "family honor" was
given an additional dimension. Insecurity led to the tightening of
social control over women. Control of women became the measure by
which Palestinian society was able to preserve itself and maintain
its special charac¬teristics. Its uniqueness vis-a-vis the
Jewish society is expressed by its preser¬vation of
traditional values, further emphasizing its significant
identification with the Arab world surrounding Israel. The women
were entrusted with the role of preserving Palestinian culture and
passing it on, whereas the protec¬tion of their honor was used
as a means of strengthening ethnic identity.
The high rate of unemployment among Palestinian citizens of Israel
and the parallel pressure to raise the standard of living have
caused increas¬ing numbers of Palestinian women to enter the
job market. Due to mea¬ger employment opportunities in the
village and low education stan¬dards, a considerable number of
them pursue non-professional work. As a result, women work for low
wages, in an economic market subject to vacillations, and/ or
periodic jobs (such as agriculture), and are subject to the control
of men (Ibrahim, 1993).
Parallel to that, a rise in women's education standards opened up
new employment opportunities. However, it is worthwhile noting that
tradi¬tional social mores still greatly restrict Palestinian
women from going to The paucity of employment options in the
Palestinian sector force women to com¬pete with men, who are
obviously the preferred employees. The teaching profession, for
example, which is "a feminine" pro¬fession in the Jewish
section, is a "masculine" profession in Palestinian villages.
Integration in the labor market has opened up for these women a
connection to women's organizations. The women, who were
per¬ceived as keepers and passers-on of tradition to the
coming generations, have turned into potential agents of social
change. Adoption of modem lifestyles undermines the family's
traditional struc¬ture. Until 1967, these processes were
identified as processes of assimila¬tion in the Jewish
society, and subsequently were confronted by strong opposition.
After the Six-Day War, awareness of women's equality ceased to be
"a Jewish" problem imposed on the Palestinians in Israel, and
turned into a general problem shared by members of the Palestinian
nation. At this turning point, a change was generated also in the
Israeli Arabs' identity structure as Palestinians.
These facts, which eased the situation for women among some members
of their own society on the one hand, forced them, on the other
hand, into a con¬frontation with the Israeli government, which
did not approve of the growth of the Palestinian identity. Indeed,
the Israeli authorities were comfortable with the idea that women
would remain at home and would not enter the public sphere,
politics in particular. Paradoxically, the central government's
interests corresponded with those of the conservative forces in the
Palestinian community, who demanded that women know their place -
home.
Hope from the Peace Process
The Israeli-Arab conflict is not the origin of gender inequality in
Israel. It nevertheless constitutes a factor perpetrating this
inequality, and even serves to a large extent to legitimize its
continuation.
In the Jewish society, the conflict's centrality strengthens family
rela¬tions and with them women's traditional roles; the
emphasis on the conflict and on national duty serves as an
efficient device to prevent engagement in the question of equality
and defers women's demands for equality of rights. In the
Palestinian society in Israel, the centrality of the conflict has
turned the family into a symbol for the preservation of the
national frame¬work and the consolidation of the inequalities
between the sexes.
The peace process provides hope for a shifting of the elements
which make the conflict the central issue. Consequently, it opens
up certain per¬spectives for the society, forcing it to engage
in issues related to women's status in the family and in the
society at large.
Endnote
1. The discussion is restricted to citizens of Israel alone. The
impact of the conflict on the Palestinian family in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip, particularly after the outbreak of the Intifada,
requires a separate exploration (d. Hilterman, 1991; Peteet,
1991).
Selected Bibliography
Azmon, Yael and Izraeli, Dafna N. Women in Israel. New Brunswick
and London: Transaction Publishers, 1993.
Hilterman, Joost R. Behind the Intifada: Labor and Women's
Movements in the Occupied Territories. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1991.
Ibrahim, Ibtisam. "The Cucumber Pickers" (Hebrew), Nogah 26, 1933,
pp. 34-37. Katz, Ruth and Peres Yohanan. "The Sociology of the
Family in Israel: An Outline of Its Development from the 1950s to
the 1980s." European Sociological Review 2, 1986, pp.
148-159.
Mar'i, Miriam. "Palestinian and Israeli Arab Women in Light of the
Intifada." Israeli Democracy 17,1989.
Mar'i, Miriam M. and Mar'i Sami Kh. "The Role of Women as Change
Agent in Arab Society in Israel." Calling the Equality Bluff -
-Women in Israel, eds. Swirski, Barbara and Sa fir, Marilyn. New
York: Pergamon Press, 1991.
Peteet, Julie M. Gender in Crisis - Women and the Palestinian
Resistance Movement. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991.
