The Gender Aspect in Golda Meir`s Political Career: An Analysis through `This is Your Life` TV series

Golda Meir`s relationship with the feminist movement of her time was complex and ambivalent, both on the level of her perception in Israeli and worldwide public opinion and also on the level of her self-identification as a female leader. In 1977, Channel 1 of the Israeli Broadcasting Authority (IBA) aired an episode of the famous television program "This is Your Life" ("Chaim Sheka`ele"), with Meir as its main guest. During the three-hour broadcast, Meir`s political biography was presented and, from time to time, the gender issue arose. This paper focuses on examining this issue. Through critical viewing and qualitative content analysis of the television program, the paper seeks to examine whether, and how, the issue of gender stood out during Meir`s public career. The broadcast was found to include 47 gender references. These references were classified into six main thought patterns. Amongst these were Meir`s consistent identification with the private sphere; her framing through the use of "feminine" character traits, such as humanity, motherhood, and warmth; the questioning of her leadership ability in regard to "masculine" issues, such as national security; and constant references to her personal relationships. The theoretical novelty of the present article lies in the possibility that it proposes to examine the biography of a political leader, not only through archival documents and collections, but also through the mass media. Its main empirical conclusion is that, in contrast to past research, the gender issue seems to have been one that was both prominent and significant throughout Meir`s political career.









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