Israel once prided itself on being a progressive, egalitarian
society. Even if, upon examination, we discover that this was never
the case insofar as women were concerned, we may well find a
certain pattern characteristic of transition from a national
movement to statehood.1 In the pre-state struggle there was at
least an ideology of gender equality, and, in certain
circumstances, women did indeed assume roles more or less equal to
those of men. Once statehood was achieved, however, more
traditional nonns dominated the national psyche even when the
rhetoric and some fonns of behavior digressed from these nonns.
Women worked outside the home, entered politics, served in the
anny, but they were generally confined to "female professions,"
women's organizations, and subordinate tasks. Leadership,
influence, and dominance in virtually every area remained, indeed
remains to this day, finnly in the hands of men.
This is not to say that no progress has been made. The feminist
move¬ment in Israel, which has gained significant momentum
over the past twenty years, has greatly expanded with many
component parts, and it has succeeded both in raising women's
consciousness (if not that of the whole society) and in gaining
breakthroughs in certain professions, in the area of legislation,
and in some aspects of life. Legal, medical, and financial
insti¬tutions have far more women than in the past; there are
laws on the books which, at least in theory, protect women from
sexual harassment and from violence in the family (to some degree)
and call for affirmative action in one, albeit limited, sphere
(directorates of state-owned companies). There is at least a form
of parental (rather than purely maternity) leave, and a broad
network of (partially subsidized) day-care facilities.
Elimina ting the Myth
Nonetheless, the barriers to equality for women in Israel go beyond
those confronting women in most developed countries. The fairly
universal bar¬riers which stem from stereotyping, sexist
education (including the media, advertising, and the arts), plus
the socialization of both boys and girls to adapt to patriarchal
norms of behavior, are supplemented and fortified in Israel by
other factors and patriarchal institutions.
One such factor, the myth that there is already gender equality,
may be diminishing. For many years, Israeli women remained
oblivious to the sta¬tus of women, either believing the
egalitarian rhetoric of socialist Zionism even when their own lives
bore few signs of the proclaimed equality, or blindly accepting
their subordination and exploitation as part of the natur¬al
order of things. If women were unaware of the injustice of their
situa¬tion, it was no wonder men were entirely indifferent,
even hostile to the whole issue. But Israeli society on the whole,
and women in particular, have been steadily gaining a greater
awareness of the problems and issues involved. This is a far cry
from a solution, but elimination of the myth of equality is a sine
qua non for societal change.
Organized Religion against Equality
The second barrier is nowhere near elimination; that is the barrier
posed by the religious establishment in Israel, which is both
extraordinarily back¬ward and extraordinarily powerful.
Because of the electoral (coalition) sys¬tem in Israel, the
Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox (fundamentalist) religious circles -
through their small political parties - have the power to tip the
scales in favor of one or other of the major political parties.
Thus they have succeeded in blackmailing virtually every governing
coalition in the coun¬try to maintain religious control over
vital aspects of citizens' rights.
For example, in the Knesset before the 1992 elections, Rabbi
Feldman of the ultra-Orthodox party Agudat Yisrael, chair of one of
the most important com¬mittees in the Knesset, the Finance
Committee, proclaimed that not only should women not be in public
life, they should not even have the right to vote. Such political
power in the hands of a group which firmly believes a woman's place
is, exclusively, in the home, cannot but create obstacles to
equality.
The Military
The third, no less formidable and still more central barrier is the
absence of peace. So long as Israel is in a state of war, the
military - and along with it the values and norms of the military -
will remain central to Israeli society. All, or almost all, Jewish
citizens pass through this institution, experiencing there what
amounts to the last stage of socialization as they emerge from
adolescence into adulthood. And the men continue to serve,
regularly, throughout most of their adult lives. The military is
the quintessence of a patriarchal institution, reinforcing and
perpetuating the stereotypical role of women as subordinate,
subservient and superfluous.
In the year before the draft, the various branches of the army
court the boys, competing with each other to enlist the best of the
young men; but not women. The different approach is evident even in
the letters sent out for the pre-daft registration of 17-year-olds.
Then, it is far easier for girls to obtain an exemption from
service than for boys, accounting for a 25-30 per¬cent
difference in their numbers. The girls serve far less time than the
boys and do virtually no reserve duty. This in itself delivers the
most important message about the worth of women in comparison with
men; it is ampli¬fied many times over during the period of
required service both by the nature of the tasks permitted or
accorded women and the attitude -and behavior - exhibited toward
them.
Status in the army (any army) is determined, at one end of the
spectrum, by one's relationship to combat, and, at the other, by
one's relationship to serving coffee. In the Israel Defense Forces
(IDF), only men may serve in combat positions. This is not to say
that some "prestigious" positions are not open to women, and the
closer women are to actual combat positions, the higher their
status - albeit after that of men. The vast majority of young
women, however, are viewed by their male superiors and fellow male
soldiers as generally unnecessary, at best a source of warmth and
comfort for their otherwise Spartan existence.
The Male as Defender
The negative impact of the absence of peace goes beyond the
influence of the military establishment itself. A country in a
state of war, by necessity or custom, values the male child above
the female. The male is our poten¬tial defender; he may be
called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice for our benefit; he has
a special, critical, essential role to play in our society. He has
"military" traits: strength, force, aggressiveness, bravery; the
very traits generally associated with masculinity. And the
"superior" qualities devel¬oped in the course of a military
career, coupled with the status accorded the professional soldier
in a country at war, provide privileged positions for the
ex-military upon return to civilian life - advantages unavailable
to women. Consider, for example, the recent appointment to the
government of former chief-of-staff, Ehud Barak, or other former
generals in the past, not to mention the "old boys network" of the
army (and the reserves) which helps men in many areas of Israeli
society.
At the same time, women tend to internalize the message conveyed by
all this. Especially in time of war, women tend to feel guilty that
they are saved from the danger and sacrifice demanded of men. They
are forced back into the most traditional roles of providing
solace, "care" packages and the like for their fighting men;
confined to home because of the closure of schools in time of
crisis, and to still further exclusion from decision-mak¬ing
bodies as these bodies contract in times of war or crisis.2
In addition, there is the perhaps less insidious, but nonetheless
debilitat¬ing problem characteristic of societies in a state
of war, or of peoples engaged in national struggle: they have a
particular set of priorities. Gender equality is not high on this
list; women's issues are deemed less than secondary,
cer¬tainly less urgent than the struggle at hand, and, thus,
it can wait.
Women and Peace
Gender equality is not the only reason for Israeli women to wish
for peace. Nor are women the only ones who seek peace. Yet the
achievement of peace would certainly help to eliminate one of the
main barriers to equali¬ty, thus according women an additional
interest, so to speak, in peace. Women have been drawn to the peace
camp, however, for many reasons, some of which do indeed derive
from their particular situation as women. Perhaps women, who
themselves are oppressed as a group, and are denied
self-determination, freedom and power (of the type available to
men), unconsciously empathize more directly with the oppressed, the
occupied, the victim. Certainly psychologists find women more
likely than men to sympathize with "the other," and the flood of
women to the peace move¬ments during the Intifada provides
some evidence of this phenomenon.
Moreover, women do not benefit from, nor do they usually buy into,
the concepts of "glory of war,,,'heroism, male bonding and the
like. They are more likely to see only the losses, the pain, the
sorrows of war. At the same time, their mutual socialization as
women has made women more likely than men to prefer compromise and
negotiated solutions rather than the use or show of force. This may
account for the higher percentage of women than men who were
willing to have Israel negotiate with the PLO in the late 1980s, or
the fact that leading Israeli and Palestinian women were able to
reach mutual recognition and agreement on political compromise in
the dialogue of the Jerusalem Link3 well before Oslo and the
present peace process. It is not that women are unrealistic,
"soft," or ignorant of the prob¬lems at hand and the
complexities of security. Women hold dear the interests and
security of their societies and peoples no less than do men. For
the most part, though, they do have a different concept of these
goals and the means of achieving them. And they have an affinity
and understanding of each other which go a long way toward bringing
down the wall of enmity separating Israelis and Palestinians.
Endnotes
1. For reasons of space, I confine myself to the issue of Jewish
women in Israeli society.
2. Bar Yosef, Rivka and Oorit Padan-Eisenstark. "Role System under
Stress: Sex Roles in War," Social Problems, No. 25,1977, pp. 135-45
(on the Yom Kippur War). Na'amat also conducted a study on the role
of women during the Gulf War of 1991. 3. The Jerusalem Link is a
women's joint venture for peace, composed of two inde¬pendent
women's centers, the Israeli Bat Shalom and the Palestinian
Jerusalem Center for Women. It grew out of a dialogue of
Palestinian and Israeli women begun in 1989 in Brussels under the
title "Women Speak Out for Peace."