Varda Mühlbauer

 

​Dr. Varda Mühlbauer is a psychologist, a committed feminist researcher,  emeritus lecturer, and editor. For many years, she has worked extensively teaching, researching and consulting on gender issues from a feminist perspective. She is the winner of the 2013 Florence L. Denmark Award for her contributions to the study of women and aging. She is particularly interested in the ways socio-political power structures impact the construction of gendered identities. Recently, her focus has been on the intersection of identity issues and liberal or religious-conservative attitudes. Among her edited treatises are two co-edited collections on Women over 50 from psychological perspectives and (with J.C. Chrisler), Women and aging from an international, interpersonal power perspective (with Chrisler and F. L. Denmark) and Redefining management: Smart power perspectives (with W. Henry).

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Beyond the Partition: Ultra-Orthodox Women, Power, and Politics

Nonfiction

249 pp.

Publisher: Yediot Sfarim
Year: 2024

 

Translation Rights: World
Audiovisual Rights: World
Translations Available: Partial English translation available
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For much of Israel’s secular public, Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) women are an enigma. They fascinate secular and liberal observers – especially women – who struggle to understand them. They are seen both as victims of an ultra-conservative religious society and as unexpected agents of social and political change within the Haredi world itself.

 

What is really happening behind the curtain that separates men and women in Haredi life? Why are women directed to the back of the bus? Since when have gender-segregated beaches become so normalized? What social and political forces have intensified modesty regulations to the point of erasing women’s images and even their names from advertisements? Why do so many women appear to cooperate with their exclusion from public life and centers of power? And are there issues – such as sexual abuse – that push them to speak out and fight back?

 

The social and political reality of Haredi women defies easy explanation. Religion – especially in its fundamentalist forms – often obscures the workings of power and coercion against women, repackaging them as necessary accommodations to religious needs. But are religious needs alone what shape the gender codes and social order in the Haredi world? The battle over the collective identity of Haredi women is fought in a lively political arena, as part of broader struggles over power and control.

 

This collection of essays presents new research by legal scholars and social scientists who analyze major events and current trends shaping the lives of Haredi women in Israel. It also includes an original survey of Haredi women themselves, exploring their views on key issues affecting the country’s future – and their own perspectives on the balance of power between men and women in their community.

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Critical Praise

 

[The book] brings together research on women who are excluded, hidden from view – women we might suppose are simply waiting for us to rescue them from their repressive lives. The assumption was that now, with more ultra-Orthodox women pursuing higher education and coming into contact with the secular world, they would bring greater liberalism to their community, more “Israelization”, and spark a process of change. That assumption did not prove true… They are, in fact, very satisfied with their lives. To us, it might seem obvious that they should rebel – but they see no reason to do so.
Varda Mühlbauer and Mina Zemach held in-depth conversations with their interviewees. The women were genuinely content – they weren’t just putting on a front. When we set out to “save” them from lives of oppression and exclusion, we are, it turns out, mistaken.

Ilan Lukatch, Ulpan Shishi (Channel 12 News)

 

Mühlbauer and Zemach examined a range of trends and developments among ultra-Orthodox women in recent years against the backdrop of the growing political power of the ultra-Orthodox sector. Alongside a detailed survey that they conducted among ultra-Orthodox women, the book presents a collection of essays on topics such as discrimination and exclusion; the community’s response to women who have experienced sexual abuse; ultra-Orthodox women’s participation in the workforce; and the emergence of ultra-Orthodox women’s cinema.
Various public events in recent years have given new urgency to these fundamental questions. The research touches on issues deeply embedded in the DNA of Israeli society – such as gender-segregated public transportation and separate bathing beaches for men and women. The book sets out to examine how we reached this point in the first place.
The findings are striking: ultra-Orthodox women largely feel that their lives are, indeed, good. One explanation for this widespread sentiment is what Zemach and Mühlbauer term “benevolent sexism.” Unlike hostile sexism, which controls and restricts women through strict rabbinic rulings and pashkevilim (public wall posters, often carrying moral or religious warnings), benevolent sexism defines women as wonderful and worthy of admiration, but also as weak and dependent on men for support and protection.
While secular women, as well as secular men, will quickly recognize the patronizing, diminishing undertones beneath this seemingly flattering approach, it cannot simply be dismissed as a deliberate mechanism for producing “false consciousness”. A crucial part of anyone’s identity, including gender identity, is shaped by the narratives we tell ourselves. Most ultra-Orthodox women inherit their narratives from their mothers, who received them from their grandmothers, and they wish to model themselves on them.
The only visible crack in this optimistic worldview emerged around the question of core curriculum studies (basic secular subjects such as mathematics, science, and English, which are often excluded from ultra-Orthodox girls’ schools). About one-third of the women – a relatively high figure – supported introducing these studies because they connected them to the next generation, to their children. This “for the children” motivation may also lead to greater engagement with secular society.
In ultra-Orthodox society, there are mechanisms, both overt and covert, that prevent the development of political consciousness and block change. As in other fundamentalist movements, ultra-Orthodoxy fuses religious faith with essentialist gender differences: This is how God created the world. This is non-negotiable. If I try to change it or criticize it, I am, in effect, criticizing God and the faith itself. If I, as an ultra-Orthodox woman, challenge the gender hierarchy within my community, I am challenging the divine order.

Ronen Tal, Haaretz

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