Is she still ‘the legendary Jewish mother’? a comparative look at Golda Meir’s and Tzipi Livni’s election campaign coverage in the Israeli press

Abstract

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.