Gender change in the personal, female arena

b. Most of the existing organizational structures perpetuate the stereotypical gender division of tasks (with women responsible for areas of education, welfare, health and so on).

c. The election method that blocks the entry of women into the political area and the absence of preventive steps such as the need to ensure their representation (placing women in unrealistic political party slots, not offering jobs connected to the elections, preventing their exposure, not looking for women for party lists and so on).

d. The lack of budget and financial sources for women interested in contending.

5. Special gender based analysis (GBA)⁷⁶ indices should be planned to eliminate gender inequality.

6. Empowering women is the key to the success of the process.

Local authorities in the State of Israel, particularly in the last decade, have been mainly responsible for the welfare of their residents as far as national services and local development were concerned (Rubinstein, 2004). In a combined and gradual process, not always planned, authority was delegated and responsibility transferred from the central government, that, together with local initiatives of the local authorities, created activity at the local, municipal level gradually expanded (Deri, 1994). This situation locates the municipal arena as important and central in leading social change.

for the roles depends on fulfilling their social role as mothers.⁷⁸ This situation got strength when even women in management positions ,whose career and personal development demands great devotion to work, mentioned the family still holds prime importance to the point of waiving their careers (Shalev, 1995)

The emphasis on the link between the woman being a wife and a mother is a symbiotic connection. Following the first stage of converting the woman from an unmarried to a married person, she must become a mother, since without this her position is incomplete⁷⁹.

To be a married woman is considered an important social status in society in general and in Israeli society in particular. Such marriage has a distinct patriarchal character, defining the woman as the man's property, her obligations as mother and wife, making divorce generally difficult but allowing it more easily if the conditions of motherhood and wife are not upheld.

Being mothers and wives has positioned women as economically dependent on the main wage earner – the father, brother, husband - which was one of the reasons pushing women to go out to work and earn an income. Although it was one of the most influential and decisive feminist changes, it is one of the main problems faced by women today. The transition to the public sphere - work - did not alter the social perception towards the gender division of roles in the home and the family area as belonging to the woman (Smithson and Stoke, 2005). Women found themselves juggling two demanding areas – work and career, and family and home.

The world of work became another area for the gender division from the point of view of the areas of work (physical work for men – both complex but also rewarded; female work – close to the involvement at home – caring, welfare, and less well compensated). The studies find that women are no different from men in their attitude to the centrality of work in

78 The issue of family has been raised in the context of the 2005 elections in Germany, when the Chancellor's wife noted the fact that Angela Merkel, the contestant, was not a mother, or Condoleesa Rice, the American Secretary of State, who never married or gave birth. Such comments apparently raise question marks regarding the possible candidacy of the latter as future President of the US (Azulai, 2006).

79 In many traditional societies and in Israel the obligation to give birth is manifested in diverse ways.

In religious Jewish society, the day of the wedding is planned such that the woman may become pregnant on the wedding night. Women are expected to remain virgins and only become pregnant within the marriage framework and they are valued according to their ability to give birth to males who are perceived as continuing the family name

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their lives (Shalev, 2003) or in the importance, they relate to it (Shamir, 1990). But the reality is that:

"The father's work enjoys respect by the parents, grandparents, and society. Father's work is glorified – the entire family participates in this standard, empower the importance of his work" (Peleg-Rotem, 2006) what about mothers' work?

The world of work and the choice of profession are nowadays part of structuring self identity that impacts on the self image and on economic, social positioning and on the influential foci of power. The ways of socialization educated the women to develop skills of caring and service that were manifested in areas of professional learning that they chose.

Women were guided to professions wherein the necessity and level of emotional investment is not manifested proportionally in social compensation - low status and economic compensation manifested in low salaries.

Investigation of the division of labor finds most Israeli women working in six domains⁸⁰ (Suhami and Kraus 2004) receiving lower salaries and less social recognition.

One of the main reasons that prevent women from taking on management roles or entering a profession that demands other time organization is the need to balance work and family.(Izraeli 1997 a)

Clearly, the entry of women to the world of work outside the home was only change of the first order. The world of work is still founded on the basic assumption that this is a male arena, manifested in terms that define a 'good worker' as a function of loyalty to the place of work, ready to invest long and inflexible work hours as a condition for promotion instead of professionalism and so on. The world of work is not adapted to the needs and demands of women. Therefore, the world of work with its broad perspectives, is another focus of change from the personal, female and systemic as well as gender perspectives.

2.5.3.3 Personal gender - male change

Men, like women, are a category that transects groups, and every change occurring today on in the future regarding women affects or is likely to

80 Education - teachers and kindergarten teachers, welfare - social and care workers, health care- nursing , service - secretaries, community services, cleaning and housekeeping (about 91%).

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affect the males no less. This reality must be considered at diverse levels, starting from research and concluding with practice.

If we look at the two areas discussed above the change needed regarding women is moving from home arena to the public arena while men will have to move from outside of the home – the public arena - to home arena.

The male arena contains two main roles: The 'wage earner', the provider of economic security, a replay of the hunter role of pre-history era , and the hero, the fighter, positioning him as the protector of territory or property (women being regarded as a sort of property) (Sheehy, 2000).

This transition includes two main foci – that of self-identity, the transition from stereotypical masculinity to "the new man" (Nardi and Nardi, 1992),

or the 'metrosexual'⁸¹. The stereotypical approach emanating from basic assumptions such as "males are superior", "life=victory, loosing= death",

"expressions of distress and weakness are a sign of lack of masculinity".

"Masculine is everything that is not feminine" (Nardi and Nardi, 1992).

"To be a new male is a daily journey, harder, more sisyphic, more personal and more internal than the trip to the cosmetics shelf. This is a trek at the end of which there is change of identity and not only of image.

This is a trek for males who want to break the traditional gender patterns, the traditional division of roles, the traditional demands of males. This means coping with the education we received that defines men as those for whom it is forbidden to express feelings, as those who need to be achievement oriented, who need to fear every spark of femininity in themselves, who think they are better than women", as Yair After, a social worker explains in an interview in the Haaretz Hebrew newspaper (Nizan 2004).

81The word 'metrosexual' combines the word metro (urban) and sexual (sexuality). It does not refer to sexual tendencies. Mark Simpson, a British journalist, coined the term in 1994, in an article he published in the Independent newspaper, for a male city person, up-to-date in fashion, aware of his appearance, and caring for his body. The term was originally intended to describe general change in the perception of masculinity by males.( www.marksimpson.com (1994)

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An additional focus derived from this is the functional focus. It is now not enough to be a good provider; one has to be a father and good partner, according to Dr. Gonet from the Sociological department of Bar – Ilan University. The increasing entry of women to the labor market created demands for change in the division of traditional roles that is till not satisfactory.

This situation indicates the reality of the disparity between declarations that become the apparent social order of the day, within the self and the environmental delusion (including that of women) regarding change that in practice does not really occur. This is manifested in statements such as My husband helps me.., I see greater equality in my children's lives - he collects my grandson from kindergarten ..

Women invest more hours in housework (18.2) while the male participation may be only a few hours weekly (6.7). Men participate in several independent roles that are perceived as more interesting and appreciated, such as caring for children and shopping, or in roles defined as belonging to the male domain such as repairs. Women do routine, urgent and less appreciated work such as washing and cleaning (Glickman, Oren, Levin-Epstein, 2003).

This new definition of role traps fathers between the ideal, traditional image of fatherhood and the new image of a good father as one who is involved in caring for the children on a daily basis, provides emotional support and enables his female partner to develop her career. Alongside the confusion, anger, frustration and helplessness of the males, women also view the change ambivalently and some try to prevent or inhibit the change. ⁸² . The start of the processes experienced now by men are, in fact, the symbol of social change, since society is basically a patriarchal male model. Change amongst males will alter society. The focus of the necessary male change is therefore a new definition of the roles and expectations.

This researcher will not discuss this here, but just mention an approach according to which the debate over the new masculinity blinds us to the return of masculinity and with it patriarchalism to center stage due to the

82 Also known as "maternal gatekeeping" by mothers/women. The study indicates that mother's attitudes towards gender roles was a prominent contribution in the level of the father's involvement in child care (Gonet, 2007).

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