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Women in politics - Between the glass ceiling and the mud floor By Tzafi Saar Tags: Israel News "Why bother?" Hedva Yehezkeli was asked time and again, as the Green Party candidate for mayor of Hadera. Yehezkeli is one of about 30 women running for mayor nationwide in today's municipal elections. Another candidate, Anat Ziv of Kiryat Bialik, was targeted by fliers that read, "Being a blonde is not enough," and, "Every housewife thinks she can be mayor. Anat Ziv - your place is in the kitchen." Yehezkeli says that at Hadera municipal council meetings, which are open to the public, she receives remarks such as, "Why are you here? Go home, you have five children." The comments come from associates of the mayor, who is running for reelection. Advertisement "If I were a man, it would look different," she says between campaign meetings. "We have a chauvinistic society and men have the upper hand. But I'm very assertive. Men don't sway me. I have achieved far more than many men." She therefore feels optimistic. "We are on the right track," she says. "We're on our way to shattering the glass ceiling - even if the road is difficult, Sisyphean and exhausting," she says. The glass ceiling is still there, despite Tzipi Livni. The leader of Kadima, rather than breaking the glass ceiling, simply chose to ignore it. This is a significant achievement in and of itself, but one must not forget that most other women simply cannot do so. 80th in the world "It's like a tango - back and forth," says Dr. Anat Maor, who was a Meretz Knesset member and now lectures on business administration at the Open University and the Ruppin Academic Center. "Awareness is growing, both public and individual. However, the male mind constantly finds new ways of getting rid of women. The more women learn the rules of the game and get closer to shattering the glass ceiling, the sooner it returns in other forms and at different heights," she says. The remodeled ceiling is partially due to the liberal capitalist legitimization of individual gaps, she says. Even though Livni may be elected to lead the country (and even though the other two branches of government are led by women, Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik and Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish) women's role in national politics is dismal as a whole. In Spain and France, in comparison, half the government is women, while Israel has a paltry three women ministers - Foreign Minister Livni, Education Minister Yuli Tamir and Tourism Minister Ruhama Avraham Balila. Israel has had only 11 woman ministers throughout its history, although some served more than once. Only 14 percent of the current Knesset members are women. These figures place Israel 80th among 140 nations - not merely way behind Europe, but also Rwanda, Iraq, Ethiopia and Vietnam, among others. Men run the affairs of state here - even though 51.3 percent of the population is female. However, things are improving on the municipal level. While there are only a handful of women heading local councils, there are more than in the past. Women's representation is growing slowly but constantly - no thanks to the large parties, who tend to hold back women, Prof. Hanna Herzog found. One blatant example is Labor's and Likud's practice of choosing army veterans as mayoral candidates. The gains toward gender equality stem from the growth of independent lists, it seems. The women who do make it into the political leadership very often face degrading criticism over their personal appearance - Dalia Itzik has been compared to a nursery school teacher and her hairstyle is mocked, and every wrinkle on Hillary Clinton's face or clothes comes under close media scrutiny. This can be seen in the discourse regarding Livni, too, says Dr. Orly Benjamin, a sociologist from Bar-Ilan University. "[Comedians] Shai and Dror devoted 15 minutes on their radio program to whether Livni is pretty," she says. "Another day, they referred to her ties with Condoleezza Rice as a lesbian relationship, and another time they presented her husband as a doormat - meaning, a man who supports his wife loses his masculinity." It was funny, admits Benjamin, but "this is an example of the discourse that attaches to women old-fashioned messages of vapidness, looking at the cover and not at the book, and fear of women's mystical powers." "Livni also faces inappropriate political criticism," says Benjamin. "For example, the criticism about her relationship with Finance Minister Roni Bar-On, which is likely to create the reverse image than she is trying to create, and focuses on the idea that Livni does not have a clear policy. All of that is part of the trend of making women in authority look ridiculous." And thus, even though many male politicians are not much more talented than their female counterparts, to put it mildly, they usually draw far less fire. If things are complex in politics, then the field of education offers an excellent illustration of the Israeli glass ceiling. The education system is comprised overwhelmingly of female teachers, who are largely led by male principals. It is not difficult to imagine the message this sends to children. Feminist education is one of the basic principals of social change. The situation in academia is not much better, either. Israel's women are better educated than its men, and most college students are women, but only 11.9% of the tenured professors are women. And the distribution of women is not equal - of the 680 female professors, only 3.4% are of Mizrahi background. There is not even a single Arab woman professor. Maor points out that while the colleges were established only a few years ago, and could have set an example of egalitarianism, things are no better there than at universities, thanks to the old boy's network. Another well-known phenomenon is that when professions become increasingly open to women, their prestige and salary drop. This includes the media industry. Closer to the floor So, yes, the situation is bad, and the women's organizations are trying to fix it, and deserve praise - for example, for holding leadership workshops on running in the elections. Their goal is to shatter the glass ceiling. But others ask, who does this imaginary ceiling affect? After all, most women cannot even dream of approaching it, as they are much closer to the floor, "the mud floor," as Shula Keshet, director of the Mizrahi feminist movement Ahoti, calls it. The average Israeli woman earns two-thirds of what the average man earns, and more than a third of women earn minimum wage or less - 2.5 times the percentage of men receiving minimum wage. "We have to shatter the deception that feminism means shattering the glass ceiling, as if it were only an issue of gender equality," says Keshet. The problem is not merely that most women are far from being CEO, but that "women with a shot at shattering the glass ceiling belong to the hegemony; in Israel's case, they are well-off Ashkenazi women. It is important that there be women from a variety of cultures - Mizrahi women, Palestinians, Ethiopians," she says. "So they can't say, 'Here, there are women,' and we should all be satisfied." In addition to the intercultural aspect, the worldview of women leaders also matters, Keshet says. She believes they must be feminists, and not merely seek to maintain the male status quo. In any case, women's organizations work at two levels - among weaker women, and at breaking the glass ceiling that limits upper-class women. Benjamin notes that, while there are women in positions of power who are not declared feminists, they often promote other women, anyway. Livni refrains from making public statements about the status of women and avoids any identification with an agenda of this type, even though she voices support for women in closed forums. On the other hand, Benjamin notes, "The person who introduced part-time, temporary positions for women in Europe was Margaret Thatcher, as part of her general economic policy." She adds: "The question is not whether a person is genetically male or female, but what their socio-economic positions are and whether they promote a public policy of gender equality." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Trailblazer Haula Abu-Bakar named first Arab female professor in Israel. Hills of hostility A stranger coming to Hebron Saturday would be confused.   1.   may ALL the women of israel rise to flourish in their potential 08:18  |  eric 11/11/08   2.   Women looking for women`s vote shouldn`t complain about the rest 16:49  |  Citizen 11/11/08   3.   young Israeli woman rage 22:25  |  emma 11/11/08   4.   A Load of Crap! 08:32  |  FOX 12/11/08   5.   Sexism against Men 09:22  |  rh 12/11/08

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