The kibbutz and the
moshav are two collective democratic forms of settlement inspired by the
socialist ideology prevalent within the Jewish national movement in Palestine at
the end of the 19th beginning of the 20th century. As was
the case in a number of other voluntary forms of association such as communes,
social movements, political parties and some trades union which, from the
beginning of the modern age, were influenced by the socialist utopia, the
promise of gender equality in the kibbutz and the moshav became one of the
fundamental principles of these communities. This promise was part of an attempt
to establish a new egalitarian society, in which inequality in the distribution
of rights and obligations between men and women will be abolished through
transforming the boundaries between the private and the public spheres.
As this division forms a central institutional mechanism
which, for centuries, has produced and re-produced an unequal gender order, it
was by attacking this mechanism that equality was meant to be
achieved.
This book presents
the historical development of gender boundaries in the kibbutz and the moshav.
It underscores their dynamic nature and sheds light on the changing private and
public spheres that evolved during decades. This is accomplished through giving
space to the multi-faceted and multi-cultural voices of the women members of the
kibbutz and the moshav, secular and religious women, old-timers and new comers,
situated at the center or at the periphery of their communities. It brings into
sharper focus many issues related to gender boundaries and to the private and
public spheres that have rarely or even never been raised. By doing so, this
book contributes to our understanding of the social mechanisms that (re)produce
gender inequality in modernity, be it in its socialist, capitalist or
post-industrial version. It also provides additional evidence to the limits of
any attempt to achieve gender equality by focusing only on the transformation
of women without challenging hegemonic masculinities.