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Women in Israel
Anthropological, Feminist and Personal Perspectives
Esther Hertzog
248 pages, 10 illus.
ISBN 978-1-80539-957-5 $135.00/£104.00 / Hb / Published (April 2025)
eISBN 978-1-80539-955-1 eBook
Reviews
This is a fascinating book particularly because it covers the topic of women in Israel from so many different angles. That is the book's strong point. It's not eclectic but rather seamlessly flows from topic to topic, all brought together by the author's introduction. Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz, Bar Ilan UniversityBar Ilan University
Israel is not merely facing a ‘women’s issue’; Israel is facing a democratic crisis in which women’s exclusion is one of the clearest symptoms. Hertzog’s important book reminds readers that democracy cannot survive when half the population is treated as objects and observers rather than as informed experts and equal participants. — Contemporary Jewry
The chapters collectively present a rich and vivid portrayal of Zionist women’s in Palestine and in various countries… Reading the book yields an important insight: the spread and success of the Zionist movement – culminating in the establishment of the State of Israel – cannot be fully understood without recognising the diverse activities of women throughout the Diaspora and their contribution to the development of the land…[This] comprehensive view makes clear that Zionist women endowed the Zionist movement with a distinctive practical, feminine and maternal character. — Israel Affairs
Description
There are diverse and complex problems faced by the women in Israel. This book explores educational issues and women's roles in teachers' labor conflicts, threatened motherhood within the welfare system, bureaucratic encounters faced by Ethiopian immigrant women, the implications of lacking women's political parties, feminist activism against the sex industry, and gender power dynamics in gyms. It is a comprehensive feminist examination of women's diverse experience in Israeli society over four decades and analyses societal during this time. As an ethnography, the book emphasizes a commitment to social justice and equality, it challenges prevailing social and gender research approaches.
Esther Hertzog was a social worker and school teacher before training as a Social Anthropologist. She is now Lecturer in Sociology and Anthropology at Beit Berl College.
Subject: Political and Economic AnthropologyGender Studies and Sexuality
Area: Middle East & Israel
Contents
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