Losing is Not an Option! Women's Basketball in Israel and its Struggle for Equality (1985–2002)

Abstract

The current paper sheds light on a process that has changed Israeli sport between the years 1981 and 2002. The paper traces, conceptually and historically, the multiphase nature and struggle for equality of the Israeli women's basketball team. Through examining interrelated processes, this paper illustrates that although women have gained some ground as far as visibility and awareness is concerned, it is far too early for a ‘victory lap’. The rapid increase in women's participation in sports in Israel over the last decades expresses the change in the status of women in sports itself and in many other social areas, but in parallel also exposes staunch thought patterns in regard to women's and men's involvement in sports.

Keywords::

• Israel
• sport
• women's basketball
• gender
• equality

Notes

^1.Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement.

^2. Cited at Ibid., 39.

^3.Dunning, “Sport as a Male Preserve,” 79.

^4.Galily, “Sport, Politics and Society.”

^5.Hoeber, “Exploring the Gaps,” 266.

^6. In Israel, see, for example, Nir-Toor, “Sport as a Chauvinistic Stronghold.”

^7.Shaw et al. “Can Gender Equity Be More Equitable?”

^8.Shaw and Hoeber, “A Strong Man Is Direct.”

^9.Hall, Feminism and Sporting Bodies.

^10. Ibid.

^11.Kent and Robertson, Towards Gender Equity, 43.

^12.Hovden, “Gender and Leadership Selection Processes.”

^13.Hoeber and Frisby, “Gender Equity for Athletes.”

^14.Acker, “Inequality Regimes: Gender, Class, and Race.”

^15.Meyerson and Kolb, “Moving Out of the ‘Armchair’.”

^16.Aitchison, “Poststructural Feminist Theories,” 133.

^17.Rao, Stuart and Kelleher, “Gender at Work.”

^18.Shaw et al. “Can Gender Equity Be More Equitable?”

^19.Eagly and Johannesen-Schmidt. “The Leadership Styles,” 783.

^20.Hoeber. “Exploring the Gaps.”

^21.Nir-Toor, “Sport as a Chauvinistic Stronghold.”

^22.Diskin, Media Coverage of Women's Sport (ICSB survey, 1999).

^23.Galon and Noked, Correction for the Israeli Law. (accessed June 2008).

^24.Hofman, “Limor for Pink or Black Future?”

^25.Galon and Noked, Correction for the Israeli Law.

^26.Katz, Women Football.

^27.Diskin, Media Coverage of Women's Sport (ICSB survey, 1999).

^28.Committee, Israeli National Olympic, Olympic Games.

^29.Kaufman and Bar-Eli, “Processes that Shaped Sports.”

^30.Bar-Eli and Spiegel, “Israeli Women in the Olympic and Maccabiah Games.”

^31.Bar-Eli, Spiegel and Yaaron,“Patterns of Participation.”

^32.Sasson-Levi, “Feminism and Military Gender Practices.”

^33. Ibid.

^34.Lomsky-Feder and Ben-Ari, “From ‘The People in Uniform’,” 44.

^35.Dinerman, Women Basketball in Israel.

^36.Paz and Jacobson, Basketball.

^37. Ibid., 44.

^38.Miles and Middleton. “Girls' Education in the Balance.”

^39.Kraus, “Women in Israel.”

^40.Pilpel, “Sport in the Eyes of the Law.”

^41.Dinerman, Women Basketball in Israel.

^42. Ibid.

^43.Pilpel, “Sport in the Eyes of the Law.”

^44.Cohen and Bailey, “What Makes Teams Work.”

^45.Rosewater, “Women Face Obstacles.”

^46.Navratilova, “Men and Women in Sports.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yair Galily

Yair Galily, PhD, is an applied sociologist, mass media and management researcher and senior lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Centre, Herzliya.

Moran Betzer-Tayar

Dr Moran Betzer-Tayar, is a Lecturer for the Sociology of Sport and for Sport Management and Policy at the Ruppin Academic Center, Israel. She is also the Director of the National Academy for Sport Excellence at the Wingate Institute, Israel. She has been at the Wingate Institute since 2005. She earned her PhD from Loughborough University, UK, specialising in sport and gender policy. Her research interests are in sport sociology, gender and sport, sport policy and management, socio-pedagogical aspects of elite young athletes and bridging social gaps through sport.