Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T10:13:06.282Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Women's Quest For Occupational Equality: The Case Of Jewish Female Agricultural Workers in Pre-State Israel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Yossi Katz
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Bar Ilan University, Israel.
Shoshana Neuman
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Bar Ilan University, Israel.

Extract

There is a common belief that Israeli women have achieved gender equality over and above that attained in America and European countries. Evidence cited to support this is the fact that women routinely serve in the Israeli army and the country elected a woman, Golda Meir, as prime minister. Equality between men and women is claimed to date back to the days at the beginning of the century when both sexes worked shoulder to shoulder in road construction and land reclamation (Bernstein, 1992: 2). The years 1904–14 and 1919–23, known in Zionist history as the Second and Third Aliyah (waves of immigration), were indeed formative times during which the dominant values of the society were shaped and the infrastructure of future organizations was laid (Eisenstadt, 1967; Izraeli, 1981). The immigrants who arrived during this period, known as halutzim (male pioneers) and halutzot (female pioneers) were idealistic nationalists from Eastern Europe. They were young and single, and came with the express purpose of rebuilding Zion and creating a new type of egalitarian and labor-oriented society.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aaronsohn, R. 1981. ‘Stages in the Development of the Settlements of the First Aliyah,’ in Eliav, M, ed., The First Aliyah, Jerusalem: Yad izhak Ben-Zvi and The Ministry of Defense, pp. 2584, (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Becker, G.S. 1965. ‘A Theory of the Allocation of Time’, Economic Journal, 75, pp. 493515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, G.S. 1971. The Economics of Discrimination (Chicago, IL)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, G.S. 1981. A Treatise on the Family (Cambridge, Mass).Google Scholar
Bein, A., 1976. History of the Jewish Settlement in Israel (Ramat-Gan: Massada) (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Bein Ha'zmanim (Between the Time Periods), newspaper (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Ben-Artzi, Y., 1988 Jewish Moshava Settlements in Eretz-Israel (1882–1914), Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Ben-Artzi, Y. 1989. ‘Traditional and Modern Rural Settlement Types in Eretz-Israel in the Modern Times,’ in Kark, R., ed., The Land that Became Israel (New Haven, London, Jerusalem) pp. 133–46.Google Scholar
Ben-Aryeh, Y. 1981. ‘Geographic Aspects of the Development of the First Jewish Settlements in Palestine,’ in Eliav, M., ed., The First Aliyah (Jerusalem) pp. 8596 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Bergmann, B.R. 1974. ‘Occupational Segregation, Wages and Profits when Employers Discriminate by Race or Sex,’ Eastern Economic Journal, 1, pp. 103110.Google Scholar
Bergmann, B.R. 1986. The Economic Emergence of Women.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergmann, B.R. 1989. ‘Does the Market for Women's Labor Need Fixing?Journal of Economic Perspectives, 3 (1), pp. 4360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernstein, D. 1985. ‘The Position of Working Women in the Towns of Palestine During the 1920s and 1930s’, Cathedra, 34, 115–44 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Bernstein, D. 1987. The Struggle for Equality: Women Workers in the Palestine ‘Yishuv’, (Tel-Aviv): (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Bernstein, D. (ed.). 1992. Pioneers and Homemakers: Jewish Women in Pre-State Israel (Albany, NY).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blau, F.D. and Ferber, M.A. 1992. The Economics of Women, Men and Work, 2nd edition (Englewood Cliffs, NJ).Google Scholar
Blum, S. 1980. The Women in the Labor Movement, at the Second Aliyah, M.A. Thesis, Tel Aviv University.Google Scholar
Bluwstein, Sh. 1940. On the Shores of Kinneret (Tel-Aviv: Private Publication) (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Chabas, B. (ed). 1947. The Second Aliyah (Tel Aviv) (Hebrew).Google Scholar
C.Z.A. (The Central Zionist Archive), Jerusalem, various files.Google Scholar
Duncan, O. and Duncan, B. 1955. ‘A Methodological Analysis of Segregation Indexes’, American Sociological Review, 20, 210–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davar, newspaper, various issues (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Dvar Ha'poelet, newspaper, various issues (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Eisenstadt, S.N., 1967. Israeli Society (London).Google Scholar
Eliav, M. 1978. Eretz Israel and its Yishuv in the 19th Century, 1777–1917, (Jerusalem) (Hebrew).Google Scholar
England, P. 1992. Comparable Worth, Theories and Evidence (New York)Google Scholar
Ettinger, S. 1969. History of the Jewish People, Modern Times (Tel Aviv) (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Fishman, A. 1929. The Jewish Labor Women Movement in the Land of Israel 1904–1929, (Tel Aviv) (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Fishman, A. 1930. The Pioneer in the Land of Israel (Tel-Aviv) (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Fishman, A. 1957. Ayanot – From a Farming Collective to an Agricultural High School (Jerusalem) (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Fuchs, V.R., 1989, ‘Women's Quest for Economic Equality’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 3 (1), 2541.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The General Organization of Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1926, The Second Census of Jewish Workers in Palestine, September 1926, Tel-Aviv.Google Scholar
The General Organization of Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1938, The General Census of Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1937, Tel-Aviv.Google Scholar
Grossman, D. 1992. Rural Process-Pattern Relationships (New York, London).Google Scholar
Grossman, D. and Katz, Y. 1992. ‘Rural Settlement Patterns in Eretz-Israel,’ Geografiska Annaler, 74B (1), 5773.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutgeld, S. 1926. The Woman in Eretz-Israel (Warsaw) (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Gunderson, M. and Riddel, W.C., 1993. Labour Market Economics, 3rd edition.Google Scholar
Ha'aretz (The Land), newspaper, various issues (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Ha'boker (The Morning), newspaper, various issues (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Ha'poel Ha'tzair (The Young Male Worker), newspaper, various issues (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Izraeli, D. N., 1981. ‘The Zionist Women's Movement in Palestine, 1911–1927: A Sociological Analysis’, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 7 (1), 87114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Izraeli, D.N. 1984. ‘The Socialist Zionist Women's Movement in Eretz Israel, 1911–1927’, Cathedra, 32, 109140 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Katz, Y. 1992. ‘Agricultural Settlements in Palestine, 1882–1914’, Jewish Social Studies, 50 (1–2), 6382.Google Scholar
Kolat, I. 1964. Ideology and Reality in the Labor Movement in the Land of Israel, 1905–1919, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Jerusalem: The Hebrew University.Google Scholar
L.M.A. (The Labor Movement Archive), Tel Aviv, various files.Google Scholar
Lundberg, S. and Startz, R. 1983. ‘Private Discrimination and Social Intervention in Competitive Labor Markets,’ American Economic Review, 73, 340–7.Google Scholar
Maimon (Fishman), A. 1955. Fifty Years of the Jewish Labor Women Movement, 1904–1954 (Tel Aviv) (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Mincer, J. and Polachek, S. 1974. ‘Family Investments in Human Capital: Earnings of Women,’ Journal of Political Economy, 82 (2), S76–S108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nawratzki, C. 1914. Die Judische Kolonizations Palastinas (München).Google Scholar
Neuman, S. 1991. ‘Occupational Sex Segregation in the Kibbutz: Principles and Practice,’ Kyklos, 44 (2), 203219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The Palestine Office of the Zionist Organization, 1919, Population Census of Palestinian Jews, Jaffa (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Polachek, S.W. 1979. ‘Occupational Segregation Among Women: Theory, Evidence and a Prognosis’, in Lloyd, C., Andrews, E. and Gilroy, C. (eds.), Women in the Labor Market (New York), pp. 137–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polachek, S.W. 1981. ‘Occupational Self Selection: A Human Capital Approach to Sex Differences in Occupational Structure,’ The Review of Economics and Statistics, 63 (1), 6069.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reskin, B.F. and Hartmann, H.I., 1986. Women's Work, Men's Work: Sex Segregation on the Job (Washington, DC).Google Scholar
Schama, S. 1978. Two Rothschilds and the Land of Israel (London).Google Scholar
Shilo, M. 1980. ‘The Women's Agricultural Training Farm at Kinneret, 1911–1917’, Cathedra, 14, 81112 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Silber, J. 1989. ‘On the Measurement of Employment Segregation’, Economics Letters, 30, 237–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tiger, L and Shepher, J. 1975. Women in the Kibbutz, (New York).Google Scholar
Tuana, N. 1992. The Misbegotten Man: Scientific, Religious and Philosophical Images of Women's Nature (Bloomington).Google Scholar
Ussishkin, M. 1905. Our Zionist Program (Warsaw) (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Watts, M.J. 1992. ‘How Should Occupational Sex Segregation be Measured?Work Employment and Society, 6 (2).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkansky, Y. 1918. On the Way (Jaffa) (Hebrew).Google Scholar