Shlomit Air – Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
Keywords
Public sphere, Deliberative democracy, Gender equality, Social engagement, Voice and gender, Women’s leadership, Women in Israel.
Abstract
Feminist thought often attributes a great deal of importance to giving a platform to the voices of women from all walks of life. Allowing women to be heard in the public sphere is often regarded as a political act which expresses power, while women’s silence is often linked to intersectionality, a sense of lack of knowledge, and a passive positioning influenced by a patriarchal ideal of femininity. This dichotomous approach begs the question of whether the social meaning of silence among women is solely negative and can only be addressed through a narrow lens which expresses patriarchal oppression and exclusion, or whether it is possible to view silence as a strategy that expresses choice.
This study deals with the lacuna in research on the meaning of silence among Israeli women who are not weakened; women who have discovered their voices and are active in the public sphere. The study is based on a qualitative method that includes in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 31 public activists, and addresses the concrete aspects of voice and silence which arise from their activity in the field.
The study’s results were surprising in that most participants indicated that silence was a frequent starting point in their adult life, and that a life-changing experience that can be described as outside intervention allowed them to express their independent opinion; to use their voice. The findings also reveal that even after discovering the possibility of voicing their opinion, most of the research group’s participants chose silence as a strategy when resisting sexism and racism, and when dealing with those areas of discourse that were perceived as unequal and threatening. Only a few participants said they felt safe enough to take leadership positions and express critical opinions that challenged the existing discourse. In most cases, they perceived this choice as a privilege. These findings forged an understanding that democracy is a necessary but insufficient condition for women to express their voices in Israel, and raised the question of how we may strengthen the voices of women and their liberty regarding their ability to publicly express their opinions.
Author’s Bibliography
“Strangers in a Seemingly Open-to-all Website: The Gender Bias in Wikipedia”, EDI Journal, Special Issue Borders. (Accepted for publication, 2019).
“An Expression of Repression or an Act of Choice? Silence as a Social Phenomenon among Israeli Activists”. Accepted for publication at Megamot. Hebrew. (In Print, 2019).