Recognition, Redistribution, Representation: Women in the Kibbutz in the 21st Century

Written By Sylvie Fogiel-Bijaoui & Michal Palgi

In this paper we examined the status of kibbutz women in the neoliberal era in the second decade of the twenty-first century. We draw on the approach of Nancy Fraser, whose ground-breaking research indicated three key parameters for analysing the gender order: societal recognition of what is understood as ‘womanhood’ and ‘feminine’, gender-based redistribution of resources and the representation parameter (Dahl, Stoltz & Willig, 2004; Fraser, 1995, 2000). We found that in the spheres of recognition and redistribution, gender borders have grown somewhat less rigid, but without significantly altering the social order. In the field of representation, we noted a process that may change the map of representation in the future and could therefore affect recognition and division. We also discussed factors that are likely to cause change in the field of representation.

Sylvie Fogiel-Bijaoui & Michal Palgi

Sylvie Fogiel-Bijaoui is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the Israel Academic College in Ramat-Gan, Israel. She holds a PhD in Political Sociology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and Paris (West)- Nanterre (Paris). Her fields of research are Gender Studies; Citizenship and Human Rights; and Family and Kibbutz Studies. She has published extensively on these topics in peer-reviewed journals, chapters, and books.

Michal Palgi, an organizational sociologist, is a senior researcher and former head of the Kibbutz Research Institute at the University of Haifa. She was the President of the International Communal Studies Association as well as the President of the Sociological Association Research Committee on Participation, Organizational Democracy and Self-Management.

Previous

Ecovillage Economies: Five Case Studies of European Intentional Communities
Next

Integrating Intentional Community and Culture, as a mean for Cultural Reintegration