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ABSTRACT
In an attempt to demonstrate how historical changes in public opinion concerning women in politics might be reflected in the media, this article offers an examination of Golda Meir’s 1969 election campaign coverage in the Israeli press compared to Tzipi Livni’s in 2009. Through a gender-focused content analysis of 878 news items, we show how, despite the scholarly argument regarding a ‘gender-blind’ socio-historical attitude towards Meir, the Israeli media discourse did in fact strongly emphasise gender-oriented elements while covering her 1969 candidacy. However, the historical comparison also shows that, with the passage of time, the Israeli press was significantly affected by political personalisation trends, as well as by a growing influence of more conservative voices, and as a result became far more gender-centred and stereotypical in Livni’s case.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. Herzog, “Why So Few?”
2. Izraeli, “The Zionist Women’s Movement,” 87–114.
3. Herzog, “Women’s Politics,” 103–21.
4. Herzog, “Why So Few?”
5. Rubin, “Meir’s Role as a Female Leader,” 1.
6. Triger, “Golda Meir’s Reluctant Feminism,” 128.
7. Herzog, Gendering Politics; Kimmerling, Immigrants, Setters, Natives; Lahav, “The Status of Women in Israel,” 107.
8. Ben-Porat, Secularization of Contemporary Israel; Kimmerling, Immigrants, Setters, Natives; Smooha, “Israel’s Regime.”
9. Jerby, The Double Price.
10. McQuail, McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory, 511–12.
11. Seongcheol, “Cultural Imperialism on the Internet,” 1.
12. Azaryahu, “The Americanization of Israel.”
13. Rahat, “Candidate Selection in a Sea of Changes.”
14. Rahat and Sheafer, “The Personalization(s) of Politics.”
15. Gedalya, Herzog, and Shamir, “Gender in the 2009 Elections.”
16. Kittilson and Fridkin, “Gender and Candidates’ Portrayals.”
17. Carey, Cultural Approach to Communications.
18. McQuail, “Framing.”
19. Molotch and Lester, “News as Purposive Behavior.”
20. Izraeli, “Gender in the Workplace.”
21. Gerbner and Gross, “Living with Television.”
22. Evans, “Thin like Her.”
23. Lemish and Drob, “All the Time His Wife.”
24. First, “All Women Should Cry.”
25. Fridkin and Goldenberg, “Women Candidates in the News”; Lawrence and Rose, Gender and the Media; Schneider and Bos, “Measuring Stereotypes of Female Politicians.”; Greenwald and Lehman-Wilzig, “He Will Take Care of our Security better than Her.”
26. Gedalya, Herzog, and Shamir, “Gender in the 2009 Elections.”
27. Lachover, “Signs of Change”; Trimble, “When Do Women Count?”
28. Meeks, “Women Candidates for Executive Offices.”
29. Han, Geisha of a Different Kind; Heldman, “From Ferraro to Palin”; Rudman, “Attitudes towards Female Authority.”
30. Meeks, “All the Gender That’s Fit to Print.”
31. Shoemaker, All the Deviance That’s Fit to Print; Greenwald and Lehman-Wilzig, “Non-Systemic Factors.”
32. Banwart, Gender and Candidate Communication; Banwart and McKinney, “Gendered Influence in Campaign Debates?”
33. Fridkin and Goldenberg, “Women Candidates in the News”; Lawrence and Rose, Gender and the Media.
34. Heldman, “From Ferraro to Palin.”
35. Cohen-Avigdor, “Israeli Women’s Journalism.”
36. Shapira et al., Representation of Women in Israeli Politics.
37. Lachover, “Signs of Change.”
38. Triger, “Golda Meir’s Reluctant Feminism.”
39. Knesset Homepage, All Past and Present Members of the Knesset.
40. Hider, “New Golda Meir,” 1.
41. Forbes, The 100 Most Powerful Women.
42. Rivak, “Israel Hayom is Getting Stronger,” 1.
43. Popular newspapers (also referred to as ‘tabloids’) are often described as emotional, sensational and oriented to an individual perspective, while elite newspapers are more rational, solid and tend to have a wider societal orientation. In addition, the popular press is identified with ‘soft news’, compared to the elite press that is more identified with ‘hard news’ (e.g. Bloch-Elkon and Lehman-Wilzig, “Differences between Elite and Popular Press”).
44. Eli Yishai was the head of the ultra-Orthodox SHAS party, 1996–2015.
45. See an important caveat regarding this finding in the discussion section.
46. Rahat and Sheafer, “The Personalization(s) of Politics.”
47. Both newspapers were significantly larger (more pages) in 2009 than in 1969, but by itself this cannot explain the huge (almost fourfold) difference between the two periods.
48. Kittilson and Fridkin, “Gender and Candidates’ Portrayals.”
49. Cohen-Avigdor, “Israeli Women’s Journalism.”
50. Kimmerling, Immigrants, Setters, Natives.
51. Ben-Porat, Secularization of Contemporary Israel.
52. Carey, Cultural Approach to Communications.
53. Goldstein, Golda: A Biography, 340–41.
54. Knesset Homepage, All Past and Present Members of the Knesset.
55. Gedalya, Herzog, and Shamir, “Gender in the 2009 Elections.
56. Banwart, Gender and Candidate Communication.
57. Kacen, “Girl Power and Boy Nature,” 345–455.
58. Lawrence and Rose, Gender and the Media.
59. Gedalya, Herzog, and Shamir, “Gender in the 2009 Elections.
60. Goldstein, Golda: A Biography, 519.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Gilad Greenwald
Gilad Greenwald holds a PhD from Bar-Ilan University's School of Communication, where he also serves as a Teaching Associate.
Sam Lehman-Wilzig
Sam Lehman-Wilzig served as Chairman of Bar-Ilan University’s Department of Political Studies (2004–2007) and School of Communication (2014–2016).