Israel has a reputation as being an egalitarian society, especially because of its common military service, but Sigal, our lecturer, claims this is untrue.
The image of an egalitarian society stems from the military and from the kibbutzim, which for the most part embraced socialist ideals of equality not only among class but also gender. For the first few years, this equality worked; when first established, kibbutzim were small, and they managed to delegate tasks evenly to men and women. When families began to form, however, this quickly changed. The original settlers were young revolutionaries, but with the establishment of families, women began to be relegated to domestic and service tasks. At first, kibbutzim attempted to affect a system of common custody, so children would be raised by the community, but even then, it was still the women who tended to them.
As afar as the military is concerned, it is true that both men and women are compelled to join, but there are significant differences: women by law serve twenty-one months, ad men serve three years. Women are thus effectively disqualified from jobs that require more training, since their period of service is shorter. Women are also barred from becoming combat soldiers; as Sigal phrased it, they can’t do what they army is about. For years, women did only secretarial work in the army, now they do field and other instructions, and they work in intelligence offices, but they still cannot fight. The first woman to attempt to be a pilot was from South Africa; the Supreme Court granted her request to train, but she failed the course (for over-motivation). Just last week, the aviator’s course was passed for the first time by a woman; she is now a navigator. Because the military is so important in Israel it is a ladder to other positions and fields, like politics. If women are kept back in the military, their access to other fields, especially high politics, is severely limited.
Another reason Israel is considered egalitarian is because in its early years of statehood, Golda Meier was Prime Minister. But, Sigal maintained, Golda Meier was not interested in women’s issues, and when one looks at the larger picture, the parliament never had more than a ten percent representation of women. Only once were two of the over twenty ministers women, and women in parliament have always held lesser positions. The last municipal elections voted two women into mayoral office—an unprecedented number.
Israel often wants to consider itself more western, but in reality it is more eastern with its general framework of a traditional society. From this arise issues of religion and family:
Israel wants very much to preserve itself as a Jewish state; therefore, religion is an integral part of politics. The Rabbanut (religious authority) rules on personal and family issues; all marriages must be contracted religiously (there are no merely civil marriages granted), and divorce is almost only done through rabbinical offices. The religious establishment is very traditional, and has a strong concept of gender roles. The prevailing sentiment are that women should maintain a domestic role, have a lot of children and stay at home and tend to the house and family. In judicial proceedings, Sigal states, women receive unfair, patronizing treatment; battered women are sometimes pressured to remain in abusive marriages, and in divorce, a woman who has committed adultery receives no alimony because she is considered a “rebellious woman.” In this sphere, women have no power, and no way of getting it or getting around it. In Arab countries, however, the situation is worse. Polygamy is prohibited by civil law, but is not prohibited by religious authorities (either Jewish or Arab), and dispensations can be granted for men to take a second wife. Many women get married t a young age; the legal age of consent is seventeen, but religious authorities can give permission for younger women to be married, and they often do, especially in the case of arranged marriages. In marriages, the younger party is usually the woman, thus placing the woman automatically in a position of weakness. Women are sometimes even sold; this doesn’t happen often, but it does occur, and when it does, the authorities turn a blind eye to it. Incidentally, foreign women strongly impact the feminist and peace movements in Israel, but the political impact of these groups is minimal.
Family, Sigal notes, is the area where eastern influence is most clearly seen. A recent poll of teenagers showed that the most important value to them is to form a family; there is a low divorce rate (less than 20%), and the average number of children per family is three. Only one percent of families are single mothers—this is not really accepted in Israeli society. Because Israel is a Jewish state, and because it is constantly facing the threat of war, the major role of women continues to be domestic; the ideal woman is a wife and mother who keeps the home for returning soldiers, and the wife is considered the cornerstone of the family. The childbearing capacity of women is considered both a national treasure and a weapon for winning the demographics war. The primary reason given for not allowing women in combat positions is the danger of captured female soldiers being raped, but Sigal maintains that this is not a great risk, since there are not many prisoners of war to begin with. But women are regarded as a national treasure which cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of the enemy. In the hospital in Tel Aviv, Sigal tells us, the maternity ward is a bomb shelter. Israel is also the number one country in the world for fertility treatments, and the government subsidizes them.
As far as education is concerned, the past fifteen years have seen a sort of piecemeal revolution. Before that, men generally attained a much higher level of education; now, women graduate at a higher rate from all levels of education. The topics of study chosen by women, however, are more traditional and differentiated; men tend to gravitate towards the fields of science and computers, while women ten towards the humanities, liberal arts, literature, philosophy and education. 90% of education students are women. Women also still work at lower wages: the average salary of a man was 6,113 NIS/month last year; for women it was 3,235 NIS/month. There is an equal wage law, so why the discrepancy? Sigal explains that the first reason is that women have different jobs than men, and their jobs tend to earn lower salaries. (The number one profession for women in Israel is teaching.) The second reason is that the law is not specific enough—a man and woman in the same job may get the same salary, but the man will get chances for extra hours, or a company car, etc… Unemployment rates are also higher for women than for men, as are poverty rates. Despite progressive legislation, women work in only 150 of the 600 plus careers generally available in Israel. Due to societal pressures, women continue to make the choice to be the secondary (not primary) provider in families. Though 50% of law students are women, they tend to choose different jobs than men after law school: men generally go to private law firms (with more money and more hours), and women tend to take government positions (with less money and fewer hours, so that they can stay home with the children).
Women tend to accept all of this, Sigal says, and prefer to fulfill their roles rather than fight society. (From the point of gender, ultra-orthodox women are in the worst position, Sigal maintains, though they themselves for the most part claim to be happy.) Domestic violence seems to be the only topic that is treated by society as a real issue, but it is not considered a feminist topic. Abortion is more of a religious than a political issue. The law permits abortion if it is approved by a hospital board, for reasons of physical or mental health, fetal defect, or if the woman can prove her social circumstances do not allow for her to give birth to another child. This last reason is the one most often objected to by religious groups. There is no cut off point for when abortions can be performed. Abortion is not considered a women’s issue in Israel, but rather one of not allowing the religious factor to control life. Though over 80% of Israeli Jews believe in God and follow some portion of halakhah, there is tension between traditional religious establishments and the more secular general society.
After the talk, we travel to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Museum. My memories and notes of this visit are rather chaotic—there was so much there, and so much of it was so graphic and unfathomably sad—I do not feel capable of giving a thorough summary of what we saw. I will merely transcribe the notes I did write, and describe a few of the pictures I took.
Next we enter the Hall of Remembrance. Shaped like a tent, its floor bears the names of all of the death camps. Under a tomb are ashes from each camp. An eternal flame reposes in the center of the Hall, its smoke rising up through an opening in the roof.
