Multiplicity of feminisms: discourse on women’s paid work in the popular Israeli women’s magazine La’isha during second-wave feminism

Abstract

ABSTRACT Study of the cultural discourse around women’s paid work in Israel is limited, and until now research has ignored its early periods and dynamics. This paper focuses on Israel’s third decade, 1967–1977, when women, including mothers, were for the first time encouraged to work outside the home. Using feminist critical discourse analysis, I examine La’isha (For the woman), Israel’s veteran commercial women’s magazine, which has self-declared its nationalist role. Mainly dedicated to traditional feminine subjects directed at middle-class women, La’isha has followed the pattern of most popular women’s magazines. However, it critically problematized the issue of women’s employment in a wide social context, emphasizing gender and class inequality and expressing a complex of hegemonic liberal feminism and socialist feminism. In examining this radical discourse, the paper looks at the cultural and civic roles of popular women’s magazines and the characteristics of this journalistic genre, and considers historical macro and micro explanations. The study demonstrates the value of women’s magazines as a historical source and highlights the potential of popular women’s magazines to take on oppositional power and play a transformative role.