Portrayals of First Ladies in the Israeli Press

‘All the Time His Wife’: Portrayals of First Ladies in the Israeli Press BY DAFNA LEMISH AND GILI DROB ‘ALL the time his wife’ reads the title of Leah Rabin’s autobiography.1 The internationally recognised widow of Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated in 1995 for his efforts on behalf of peace, chose to frame herself in a highly dependent role. The book title inspired us to investigate the role First Ladies play in the highly conflictual Israeli public sphere and consequently examine what they reveal about the status of women in Israel in general. Our point of departure assumes that images of women in the press reflect society’s ideological stance toward them and at the same time perpetuate world views, granting them further legitimisation. We assume that this perspective has particu- lar significance for portrayals of First Ladies, since they symbolically represent the glorified characteristics of contemporary ‘womanhood’, being both a ‘Lady’ and the ‘First’ one at that. The concept of a First Lady is rooted in the history of the United States and has always been treated with ambivalence by the public and the media. The new vision of the First Lady offered in the 1990s by Hillary Rodham Clinton elicited a host of empirical studies as well as biographies attempting to come to terms with the significance of this particularly visible female public role.2 Analysis of the news coverage of American First Ladies suggest that they are framed in traditional gender roles, including that of a supportive and nurturing partner, a ceremonial and fashionable escort, and a volunteer for charitable activities. However, when the American First Lady diverges from these roles and offers a model of a powerful woman, exerting her own political or professional influence on the President or directly through her own policy interventions, she becomes the focus of debate and harsh criticism. After all, it was not she but her spouse who was elected to an active political role. The constant public transformations of Hillary Clinton and the ambivalence with which she has been treated are the most vivid illustrations of the difficulty American society has in dealing with strong, talented and opinionated women who have departed from traditional care-giving and spousal roles. In more than one way she did not conform to reporters’ expectations of public women, symbolising many of the seemingly unresolved tensions between the private sphere of marriage and child-rearing and the public sphere of work and power. The unique situation of First Ladies, at the centre of the political Ą Hansard Society for Parliamentary Government 2002 Parliamentary Affairs (2002), 55, 129–142 130 Parliamentary Affairs stage, yet gaining that access not through their own doing but through their husbands, can be regarded in many ways as being symbolic of women’s gradual penetration into the public sphere. On the one hand, they are becoming more acceptably visible in politics; on the other hand, they are also expected to maintain their private roles in that newly explored territory. Female politicians, for example, are assigned responsibilities primarily in social fields such as education or health— but not in economy or defence. First Ladies are expected to look good and ‘stand by their man’ no matter what—but not to intervene in decision-making. They are expected to be present and yet absent at the same time. In this sense, the media’s treatment of First Ladies continues to reinforce the dominant traditional, gendered value system rather than challenge it. Changes in the coverage of First Ladies and their public status can therefore serve as an indicator of general changes in women’s status in a given society. The American model of the First Lady has infiltrated other countries, Israel included, as part of the Americanisation of political and cultural processes. This is evident, among other things, in the centralisation of power within the hands of the directly-elected Israeli Prime Minister and the related growing media exposure of private realms of politicians’ lives. To contextualise the presentation of Israeli First Ladies, we bring together three lines of research. First is the general mapping of the status of women in Israel and its special characteristics. Second is the examination of the role women play in the Israeli political arena. Lastly, we present our knowledge on the interrelationships between women and their media-created images. The self-image of Israeli society as egalitarian and liberal—from the myth of the woman kibbutz pioneer, through the conscription of women into the army and the election of Golda Meir as Prime Minister in the 1970s, to the adoption of politically correct slogans regarding the struggle against family violence—creates an illusion of equality. In reality, the gap between discourse and practice, between substantial gains in legislation and the courts and their enforcement in everyday life, has substantially remained outside the democratic debate. Beyond universal characteristics of gender discrimination, such as extensive segregation in the world of employment, the restrictions imposed by firmly placing the female in the private sphere and the ‘normalisation’ of inequality through educational and cultural institutions, there are also a number of complex obstacles unique to the Israeli experience. The traditional national emphasis on the importance of family and childbearing and the glorification of motherhood as a form of devotion to the attainment of national goals and nation-building perpetuate women’s place in the private sphere. The centrality of the military in the ongoing regional struggle and the system of values which is its outgrowth (such as domination, repression, exploitation, violence) exalt powerful masculinity, identified with national loyalty. Women’s strug- First Ladies and the Israeli Press 131 gles against war or conquest are perceived as a double betrayal of conventions about women’s ‘natural’ location in the private sphere and of the nation and its land. In addition, the growing status of religious parties in Israel and the control religious institutions have over individuals’ lives are detrimental to the status of women and their freedom of choice with regard to issues such as marriage, divorce, and rights over their own bodies. The Israeli religious establishment has consistently demonstrated opposition to the political equality of women, to their participation in obligatory military service as a means of strengthening their status in society— personally and publicly—and to their participation in organising religious life within their communities. The unequivocal preference given both to the issues of ‘national security’ and to the cultivation of the Jewish nature of the state over its egalitarian nature strengthens the marginalisation of women and impedes their penetration into the central political sphere. Indeed, in the institutional political arena in Israel—such as political parties, the Knesset (parliament), and local authorities – the presence of women is consistently low. Representation in the Knesset has fluctuated between 6% and 10% and most governments have had very few women ministers. The explanations offered by the professional literature for this gloomy situation are various. They include the absence of socialis- ation processes preparing women for roles in the public sphere; the influence of the Israeli electoral system and the channels for achieving positions of power; and the fact that the political hierarchies are ruled by men. There are ladders for advancement within male-dominated parties but it is also possible for men to be ‘parachuted in’ directly from previous army careers, as has been the case with many party leaders, ministers and even Prime Ministers. Political life is still perceived as being governed by relationships of power, toughness and aggression, making it inappropriate for women who are seen as passive citizens engaged in their ‘natural’ maternal and domestic roles.3 Furthermore, the heavy burden placed on the politician’s life, demanding commitment and the devotion of personal resources is thought to prevent women from fulfilling their political aspirations, confining them to their glorified role as mothers. Israeli women’s marginality in the public sphere and their relegation to the private one are clearly reflected in their media portrayals. They are generally under-represented, often associated with their traditional roles as care-givers or in their dependency roles as the ‘wife of’ or the ‘daughter of’, and as victims of crime and domestic violence. The inequality in gender presentation is so well entrenched that it is even evident during television election campaigns based on an official discourse of equality. The various strategies used to reinforce and repro- duce this order include the compartmentalisation of women and their issues in the ‘soft’ news and magazine-style sections of the media, and 132 Parliamentary Affairs the presentation of female leaders as first and foremost women in conflict with their traditional roles. In addition, the social world presented in Israeli advertising is primarily focused on women in the private sphere and on the realm of sexuality and objectification, including hints at violence, degradation and submission.4 Within this context, the framing of the Israeli First Lady can be particularly insightful. How is she presented? What roles do the media assign to her in contemporary Israeli society? Which aspects of her being are glorified and which condemned? We have tried to investigate these questions through a thematic analysis of Israeli newspaper coverage of First Ladies of the 1990s, during the periods of office of each Prime Minister, through the three major Hebrew dailies—Yediot Achar- onot, Ma’ariv, and Ha’aretz; women’s magazines Olam Ha’isha, At, and La’isha; as well as occasional articles from local papers. The coverage spread was therefore from December 1963 (Rabin’s first premiership) to February 2001 (end of Barak’s premiership), and included all items (over 400) concerning Leah Rabin, Sonia Peres, Sarah Netanyahu and Nava Barak.

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