Private and Public

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.