Speaker: Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeli (Haifa University, Israel)

Title: “Selected Gender Issues in Israel: Military, Academia, Family and Technology”

Commentator: Hiroshi Yasui (University of Tsukuba)
Moderator: Chika Obiya (CSEAS)

Abstract: Military, Academia, Family and Technology are central domains of significance in Israeli reality. The military is perceived as the country’s foundation of physical existence; the academia is viewed as the hub of local intellectual competence and sophistication; family carries rich meanings as the fulfillment of mature personhood and the building block of the Jewish national collectivity; technology has become the epitome of local excellence, symbolizing Israel’s progress and belonging in the circle of advanced developed countries.
Gender cuts across all these domains. Israeli Jewish women, like their male counterparts, are drafted to mandatory military service. In terms of schooling, Israeli women of all social sectors, outnumber men in the higher education system. In the spheres of family and fertility, Israeli women marry earlier and in higher proportion than women in OECD countries and bear roughly twice as many children – three children vs. 1.6 respectively. They also make use of assisted reproduction technologies more than women in any other country. Still, the labor market participation of Israeli women equals or surpasses the comparable figures in many OECD countries. How do these seemingly incongruent facts co-exist and how can we explain them? The talk will offer some context specific explanations regarding the parameters that underlie the life trajectories of women of various sectors in Israeli society.

About the Speaker: Prof. Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeli is a medical sociologist at the University of Haifa, Israel. Her main research domain is gender, family and health policy and practice. More specifically, she focuses on family formations, fertility and related technologies and on intersections of gender and health with local and international politics. Birenbaum-Carmeli has published extensively on these subjects.

Contact: obiya[AT]cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp

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The Seminar is organized by the Gender Equality Promotion Committee, CSEAS, Kyoto University. The seminar will be held in person. 

ATTENTION!
For participants who have small children, we are ready to set up a temporary nursery room with a professional sitter during the seminar for free. If you are interested, please email to the following address by 15:00, Nov. 17.
danjokyodo[AT]cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp