There are diverse and complex problems faced by women in Israel. This book explores women’s roles in teachers’ labor conflicts, threatened motherhood within the welfare system, bureaucratic encounters faced by Ethiopian immigrant women, the lack of political representation amongst women, feminist activism against the sex industry, and gender power dynamics in gyms. It is a comprehensive feminist examination of women’s diverse experiences in Israeli society over four decades and analyzes society during this time. As an ethnography, the book emphasizes a commitment to social justice and equality, and challenges prevailing social and gender research approaches.
Table of Content
List of Illustrations
Introduction: Studying Israeli Society as a Feminist Anthropologist
Part I: Gender and Feminism from Anthropological Perspectives
Chapter 1. Female Anthropologists Challenging Academia from the Margins
Chapter 2. Violence Against Jewish and Arab Women in Israel: Anthropological Perspectives on Two Documentary Films
Chapter 3. Anthropological, Feminist and Personal Reflections on My Mother’s Holocaust
Part II: Gender Power Relations in Politics, Education and Sports
Chapter 4. Women’s Political Parties in Israel: Their Unrecognized Significance and Potential
Chapter 5. Gender Matters in Education: Blaming Women for Government’s Failure
Chapter 6. Male Dominance under Threat: Machoism Confronts Female Defiance in the Gym with Assaf Lev
Part III: Motherhood and the Israeli Welfare State
Chapter 7. Motherhood under Control: Ideology and Reality in the Israeli Welfare State
Chapter 8. The Socialization of Immigrants from Ethiopia as Welfare Clients
Part IV: Feminist Activism and Women’s Empowerment
Chapter 9. Women’s Parliament: Politics from a Feminist Perspective
Chapter 10. Young Women’s Parliament: Bridging the Divide between Israeli Jewish and Arab High School Girls with Andrea Blanch
Chapter 11. The Feminist Struggle Against Pornography in Israel
Epilogue: Wrapping up: Conclusions and Prospects for the Future
References
Index
About the author
Esther Hertzog is head of the department of social behavior sciences at Zefat Academic College. She edited Life, Death and Sacrifice: Women and Family in the Holocaust (Gefen, 2008) co-edited Perspectives on Israeli Anthropology (Wayne State University Press, 2010); Patrons of Women (Berghahn Books, 2011) and many articles and chapters, as well as hundreds of articles in Israeli dailies.