Abstract
Structural, macrolevel factors (e.g., education level, the degree of sex-segregation in the labor market, availability of child-care facilities, tax exemptions for working mothers or dual-worker families, and other measures of industrialization) should be included in the analysis of changes in the lives of women as they contribute to our understanding of differences among societies. The impact of these macrolevel changes is not uniform across all groups and categories within societies. In order for these changes to be effective and change society, a supportive—humanistic and/or egalitarian—ideology is necessary. However, egalitarian and equal-worth ideals are not spread evenly. In Israel, as in all western societies, some segments maintain more traditional beliefs concerning the social roles of men and women and the division of labor between them, while others are more egalitarian. The main cultural areas in which changes may have occurred and are examined in this chapter include self-attribution of traits and locus of control, gender identities, the gendered division of labor, perceptions of family and work roles, and stereotypes against women. This chapter examines these issues in the diverse Israeli society.
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Notes
- 1.
The “masculinity” of an organization is determined by three factors: The proportion of men employed in it; the type of tasks required in the majority of its jobs; and the characteristics required for performing the work. The Israeli police force is a masculine organization according to all three criteria: Men constitute 80 % of all its workers; the tasks defined by its charter include high risk, high responsibility, protection of civilians and their rights, the use of physical force, and field (operative) work. The characteristics necessary to perform this work are also considered masculine (i.e., authority, forcefulness, and dominance).
- 2.
Until the early 1960s, very few women were employed by the Israeli police force, and they too were all in female-type jobs (as secretaries and typists). The growing need for police workers in the 1960s–1970s led to some policy changes that enabled women to join a variety of hitherto male-type jobs, and women were encouraged to join the force. These women were only partly integrated, as just a few of them were given field jobs, while the majority was still placed in administrative jobs at headquarters. Thus, the policy change was not implemented: In 1976, for example, women constituted but 7 % of the officers (see also Jones, 1986; Pitman & Orthner, 1988).
- 3.
No updated proportions were published in recent years, but the numbers seem to remain similar to those reported in 1995.
- 4.
The courses available in the Israeli police force are many and diverse. Some of them are compulsory, like the basic course, which all new recruits must participate in within 6 months of entering the organization. In these courses, police men and women are introduced to the organization’s methods of operation, techniques and procedures, and to its ideology and norms. Other courses that are more specific and professional, like courses for detectives, forensic technicians, or high-rank officers, are voluntary, and are based on individuals’ abilities and commanding officers’ recommendation.
- 5.
The whole list of Bem’s was examined in previous studies in Israel (e.g., Moore, 1995, 1996). Based on item-to-total correlations, all gender-neutral traits were removed and only relevant items were retained.
- 6.
Less variance is explained by the other 6 factors that include 1–3 traits in each. These factors represent the negative “feminine” traits (gullible, shy, childlike, explaining about 6 % of the variance); “personal attainment”(ambitious, competitive, flatterable, explaining less than 5 % of the variance); negative “masculine” traits (aggressive and dominant, explaining less than 4 % of the variance); gender identification (feminine and masculine, explaining about 3 % of the variance); and separateness from the collective (individualism and risk-taking, explaining about 3 % of the variance).
- 7.
Even western approaches, according to which rational and assertive behaviors are the basis of perceived control, seem to accept that in other societies where less equitable practices may dominate, individuals may turn to noninstrumental means to attain control (Lefcourt, 1981, 1983).
- 8.
Egalitarian attitudes mean “accepting both women exhibiting traditional male role behaviors and men exhibiting female role behaviors. Therefore, an egalitarian individual would not be prone to gender bias, whether the attitude object is male or female.”
- 9.
Recent analyses of the work–family interface have again turned to focus on the issue of time, i.e., working hours, time bind, time squeeze, time allocation, meaning of time, etc. (Hochchild 1997; Jacobs & Gerson 2001; Thompson & Bunderson, 2001).
- 10.
A similar hypothesis was advanced by Marks and McDermit (1996) that “People with more balanced role systems will report less role strain, more role ease, greater well being, and more positive role specific experience than people with less balanced role systems.”
- 11.
Israeli schoolteachers were chosen as a comparative baseline because they are in a traditionally female-type occupation, and in the more traditional of the examined societies.
- 12.
These are the two largest women’s organizations, and they focused on creating daycare centers, leading the fight for new mothers’ rights (e.g., both organizations fought for the creation and implementation of the laws according to which mothers of young children work an hour less every day, but are paid for that hour.
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Moore, D. (2015). Israeli Women—Changes and Their Consequences. In: Safdar, S., Kosakowska-Berezecka, N. (eds) Psychology of Gender Through the Lens of Culture. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14005-6_7
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