The Reciprocal Relationship between Gender Equality and Communal Life

1. The Reciprocal Relationship between Gender Equality and Communal Life Michal Palgi The Institute for Research of the Kibbutz and the cooperative idea The university of haifa

2. The Kibbutz Communities • There are 267 Kibbutzim today scattered throughout Israel. • The Kibbutzim constitute 1.8% (120,000) of Israel’s population, yet their contribution to the national economy amounts to 40% in agriculture, 8.4% in industrial output, and 7.5% in industrial export.

3. The Original Values of the Kibbutz • Equality among members as well as among kibbutz communities. • Direct democracy, participation and rotation of office holders. • Equal value to all works. • Mutual guarantee and help within the kibbutz and between kibbutz communities.

4. Structure Enabling Gender Equality • Meals, cooked and eaten in the communal kitchen; • Washing and mending of clothes in the communal laundry; • Childcare in the children's houses. • Women and men - economically independent of each other. • All women belonged to the work force. • Economic rewards were equal to all. • A single parent received the same allowance for the children as a couple. • Participation in the governing bodies of the kibbutz was open to all members.

5. Expected Results of Kibbutz Ideology • A different occupational, social & organizational structure. • A different gender division of labor aided by ideology. • Therefore much attention was given to gender equality in the kibbutz communities.

6. Questioning the Socialist Definition of Equality • ‘from each according to his ability to each according to his needs’. • This definition was supposed to satisfy a reality of social diversity – but did it? • Is it sufficient for gender equality?

7. Pitfalls in the Definition • It was stated in its masculine version and not in a gender neutral version. • It opens space for stereotypic pressures on each gender to do the jobs perceived “best fitted to it”. • This definition does not manage to skip the faultline trap. • Faultline refers to hypothetical dividing lines that may split a group into subgroups and give rise to polarization between in-group and out-group identities (Bezrukova, 2009).

8. Kibbutz Reality • Women had the same standard of living as men. • No poverty among women or children, but… • Women worked mainly in “female” jobs: education and services. • Jobs that did not prepare them for managerial and economic offices. • They were under represented in the management and economy of kibbutz.

9. During the years changes occurred…

10. Value Changes

11. Today’s Welfare Regimes in the Kibbutz • Different forms of welfare regimes were formed in kibbutz communities. • Some remained communitarian and others moved towards liberalism. • Most of them did not move to extreme liberalism.

12. The Worlds of Kibbutz Welfare

13. Some Reasons for Passage from Monolithic to Multiple Regimes • Ideological change - open system - new generation - new comers • Economic crisis • Political and social environment

14. PositiveAspects of the Change • The opening of the outside job market to the kibbutz expands the variety of women's occupations: • It allows them to penetrate into new occupations. • To achieve more in the professional and economic fields. • These achievements can improve their social status.

15. The Hazards of the Change • This trend also exposes women to the social discrimination that exists in the surrounding society. • When the kibbutz loses its unique characteristics, women lose the advantages that the old kibbutz bestowed upon them, mainly economic equality, equivalent social security, and peace of mind. • The status of women in the kibbutz gets closer to the status of women in Israeli society, with its advantages and its drawbacks.

16. Ah, is this the reason there are more men than women in the Parliament? Ah, is this the reason there are more men than women in the Parliament?