Israeli feminist geography: women, gender and queer geographies

Fenster, Tovi; Misgav, Chen

doi:10.1080/0966369x.2019.1596886

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Most of the older women remained restricted and dependent on the men both socially and financially. The health and education of Bedouin women and their children is therefore poor, compared to that of the Jewish population in the south of the country [ 4 , 11 – 17 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some women of the younger generation are finding the strength to become included socially and economically by acquiring an education and economic independence. More and more women drive a car, acquire an education or professional training, and opportunities to earn a living independently [ 12 , 16 , 17 ]. Nonetheless, the gap between the small number of independent and empowered women and most women who still live within the restrictions of traditional Bedouin life is immense [ 17 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the feminist project that aspires to draw women into the modern world often ignores such traditional cultural and gender codes, and that may turn the women into victims of modernization [ 17 ]. There is a current thinking in the feminist literature that any social change that draws minority societies to Western culture is a beneficial change.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, these women continue to negotiate and struggle with the masculine aim to limit their actions. Those women who burst the barriers of tradition in favor of livelihood and public activity cope with serious and sometimes impossible pressure [ 17 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Between a woman and her fetus: Bedouin women mediators advance the health of pregnant women and babies in their society

Sharaby

Peres

2021

BMC Pregnancy Childbirth

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Introduction Bedouin women in Israel confront a challenging circumstance between their traditional patriarchal society and transition to modernity. In terms of reproductive health, they face grave disparities as women, pregnant women and mothers. In this article we aim to understand the challenges of Bedouin women who work as mediators in the promotion of Bedouin women’s perinatal health. We explore their challenges with the dual and often conflictual role as health peer-instructors-mediators in mother-and-child clinics, and also as members of a Bedouin community, embodying a status as women, mothers, and family caretakers. Drawn upon a feminist interpretative framework, the article describes their challenges in matters of perinatal health. Our research question is: how do women who traditionally suffer from blatant gender inequality utilize health-promotion work to navigate and empower themselves and other Bedouin women. Methods Based on an interpretive feminist framework, we performed narrative analysis on eleven in-depth interviews with health mediators who worked in a project in the Negev area of Israel. The article qualitatively analyses the ways in which Bedouin women mediators narrate their challenging situations. Results This article shows how difficult health mediators’ task may be for women with restricted education who struggle for autonomy and better social and maternal status. Through their praxis, women mediators develop a critical perspective without risking their commitments as women who are committed to their work as well as their society, communities, and families. These health mediators navigate their ways between the demands of their employer (the Israeli national mother and child health services) and their patriarchal Bedouin society. While avoiding open conflictual confrontations with both hegemonic powers, they also develop self-confidence and a critical and active approach. Conclusions The article shows the ways by which the mediator’s activity involved in perinatal health-promotion may utilize modern perinatal medical knowledge to increase women’s awareness and autonomy over their pregnant bodies and their role as caregivers. We hope our results will be applicable for other women as well, especially for women who belong to other traditional and patriarchal societies.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Between a woman and her fetus: Bedouin women mediators advance the health of pregnant women and babies in their society

Sharaby

Peres

2021

BMC Pregnancy Childbirth

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“…Likewise, the distinctions made between urban and rural spaces continue to matter to narratives about sexuality insofar as rural areas are seen as inhospitable to LGBTQ lives in contrast to cities (Abraham, 2009;Halberstam, 2005;Myrdahel, 2016;Waitt & Gorman-Murray, 2011;Weston, 1995). Certain cities in the Global North in particular are seen as LGBTQ meccas, such as San Francisco, New York, Tel Aviv, Sydney, and Toronto (Fenster & Misgav, 2019;Gorman-Murray & Baganz, 2019;Stone, 2018). Importantly, these co-constituted narratives of place and sexuality manifest in multiple ways and are espoused not only by some LGBTQ people and those seeking to make spaces more supportive of LGBTQ lives, but also by anti-LGBTQ activists who seek to make claims about same-sex sexualities as being antithetical to certain spaces (Johnson, 2009;Valentine, 2001).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction to special issue “Geographies of Sexualities”

Kazyak

2019

Journal of Lesbian Studies

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In this foreword to the special issue "Geographies of Sexualities," I provide a review of the scholarly discussions about place and sexuality that have occurred in the past 20 years. I highlight five major themes in my synthesis of this scholarship: (1) how narratives about geography and sexuality are co-constitutive; (2) a critical interrogation of these narratives to demonstrate how more nuances exist than these narratives suggest; (3) assessments of the spatial distribution of women in same-sex relationships, comparisons to the spatial distribution of men in same-sex relationships, and analyses of the experiences of women in areas with high concentrations of women in same-sex relationships and urban lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) neighborhoods; (4) comparisons across spaces to address the effect of place on outcomes such as well-being and how mobilities and movements across geographies matter; and (5) discussions as to whether, how, and why the geographies and spaces of lesbian, bisexual, and queer-identified women are shifting. My goal is to highlight these themes in order to contextualize how the articles in this special issue continue discussions and introduce new questions for the field.

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