13. Gender Roles: The Changing Role of Women
It may seem obvious that women’s roles in Israeli
society have changed greatly in recent decades. The patriarchal
nature of traditional Jewish culture could have dictated
a domestic and publicly secondary role for women in the
new society and State. On the other hand, the shift in
the West toward acceptance of feminist ideology could
have pushed them into different, more public functions.
However, the true picture is considerably more complex
than this.
Zionism was not a continuation of the traditional Jewish
way of life: on the contrary, it considered itself a reaction
to it.. Consequently, many of the assumptions underpinning
that life – including women’s role –
did not pass into the various streams of Zionism that
created the basis of the new society. Religious Zionism
also rejected the traditional role, creating a much more
active, assertive role for women in the community. This
is best exemplified by women in the religious kibbutzim.
In theory, therefore, Israel should have aligned itself
clearly with other socialist and revolutionary societies
around the world, which attempted to define a new role
for women in the economic, social and political spheres
of public life.
It is possible to analyze the character of pre-State society
more deeply, however, and to demonstrate that, in fact,
there was always a gap between the ideology of the Zionist
movement and reality – even in the kibbutzim. Despite
a notable change in women’s roles in Yishuv society
and the contributions of some remarkable women in public
life, the years following the establishment of the State
witnessed a general retreat from the advances of that
earlier period.
In practical terms, this has meant that the major change
developing in recent years is, indeed, due to the rise
of feminism and feminist consciousness. This phenomenon
will be dealt with in a separate framework. Only a number
of the significant aspects relating to women’s place
in Israeli culture will be mentioned here.
In the years preceding and immediately following the establishment
of the State of Israel, feminine voices were lacking in
various creative fields. A few played a minor role –
and often a respected one – but the men remained
the central figures.
This is evident in the world of literature. Rachel, Dvora
Baron and Elisheva were all considered significant –
to different degrees – in the early literary life
of the Yishuv. All three were part of the Zionist milieu
of the early decades of the 20th century and made particular
contributions. Indeed, it is possible to use their work
to argue for a specifically feminine voice in literature:
quieter, smaller, more questioning and less confident
than most of their more famous male counterparts. The
women’s work dealt with more intimate, personal
canvasses. They wrote no epics and commented less on the
great national movement that was developing around them
and in which they nonetheless played a part. Even Rachel
– in many ways the one among the three whose work
most reflected the larger issues of Halutziut and nation-building
– always reflected on these subjects from an autobiographical
viewpoint. “I only know how to tell of myself”
she begins one famous poem, and this is largely true.
She made no attempt to disguise the intensely personal
nature of her poetry. The men did so very well.
There were few women writers, either, in the early years
of the State. Amelia Kahane Carmon was a significant voice
but she stood almost alone among the profusion of talented
male writers and poets who filled the literary press.
It seems that society was not encouraging its potential
women writers. The trend has only begun to be reversed
in the recent decades: a large group of extremely successful,
talented women have come to the fore in different literary
genres. Most of the novels now published in Israel are
by women. Shulamit Hareven, Savyon Liebrecht, Orly Castel
Bloom and Yehudit Katzir are just some of the names that
have gained popularity not only in Israel, but also internationally
(in translation). They and the other women who have come
to the center of Israel’s literary scene, are both
the product and the cause of a social revolution that
has been taking place in recent years. Women have now
claimed center-stage unapologetically in an arena that
was formerly mainly reserved for men.
A particularly significant aspect of this phenomenon is
the work of women writers who express the agenda or worldview
of specific sectors of Israeli society. This was related
to above regarding both the new Mizrahi voices’
expression of a sectoral outlook influenced by their ethnic
background and those that have begun to depict religious
Orthodoxy to the outside world. These two trends have
produced significant women writers. In fact, the latter
– relating to Orthodoxy – is largely spearheaded
by women. Apart from the fact that they are opening up
aspects of the world of Orthodoxy and ultra-Orthodoxy
to the general public, the very appearance of these writers
demonstrates a significant change within Orthodox society.
It is likely that other sectors of the population will
also start to develop their own literary voices, and that
women will be a part of it.
This trend is far less pronounced in other spheres. For
example, women’s voices have always been part of
the popular music field, as in many Western-oriented practices.
Until recently, however, most of them were part of a product
created by a male-dominated music industry. Women were
important as singers and performers, but generally were
interpreting songs that had been written by men; furthermore,
their music was arranged and produced by men.
In the popular music scene of today, while most of the
production, arrangement and actual playing of instruments
are still being done by men, the number of women who write
many or even most of their own songs has increased significantly
over the last twenty-odd years. Using very different styles,
women such as Yehudit Ravitz, Si Heiman and Ahinoam Nini
have taken a large degree of control over what they produce
and have much more of a say as to what musical sound they
produce. This important new direction is likely to grow
much stronger in the future.
The trends discussed here in relation to literature and
popular music are beginning to appear in almost all spheres
of cultural creativity. Women artists and sculptors, theater
directors and playwrights, architects and photographers
are increasingly influencing the fields in which they
work. Even the field of film direction –which is
notoriously difficult for women to break into in many
parts of the world – now includes a number of women.
They have produced only a small number of ‘women’s
films.’ One example was Idit Shehori’s Circles(1980),
a celebration of the intimate, intense and sometimes complicated
interaction between a group of women. While not a great
film, it was still an interesting example of a woman director’s
treatment of the subject of women’s lives. It was
not immediately followed up, but the time may well come
when it will be.