Since its founding, the State of Israel has been committed to the value of equality between men and women. Indeed, it was among the first countries to enshrine this value in legislation. In 1951, the Knesset enacted the Women’s Equal Rights Law, whose “purpose is to establish principles for ensuring full equality between women and men, in the spirit of the principles in the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel.”
However, the value of gender equality has eroded in Israel over the past two decades with the intensification of separation between men and women in public spaces, a phenomenon known as gender segregation or as an expression of women’s exclusion.
The separation between men and women can take various forms: requiring women to sit in the back of a bus; separation between men and women in public events; separation in swimming at public pools and springs in nature reserves; and street signs that create separate walking areas for men and women or instruct women to dress modestly.
A violation of equality
Just last May, the Knesset approved in first reading a bill allowing separate study tracks for men and women in master’s and doctoral degrees – an expansion of the separate tracks for ultra-Orthodox students in undergraduate studies.
Opponents of gender separation view this practice as a breach of fundamental values: violation of the equality guaranteed to women and of their human dignity, as well as violation of freedom from religion – the right that determines that a person will not be forced to act according to religious commandments that do not align with their worldview.
Supporters of separation see it as an expression of pluralism and tolerance that allows religious communities to operate in the public sphere while maintaining their unique lifestyles and protecting their religious feelings.
What does the public think about this contentious issue? How do Israelis balance women’s fundamental rights against the need to respect religious feelings?
Public opinion rejects separation
The Institute for Liberty and Responsibility at Reichman University examined this question through a public opinion survey conducted on June 8-11 among a representative sample of 803 Israelis. We presented survey participants with a series of gender separation measures and asked them to determine whether each manifestation of separation is legitimate.
The results are unambiguous: most Israelis reject the idea of separation between men and women in the public sphere. All the separation measures we presented received a low level of support; none of them enjoys the support of a majority of the public.
The lowest public support was recorded for the two measures that most severely harm women’s rights to equality and dignity: street signs instructing women to dress modestly (14% support) and the requirement that women sit in the back of buses on lines serving mainly ultra-Orthodox populations (15% support).
Gender separation in other public places received slightly higher, but still low support. Separate bathing hours for men and women at springs in nature reserves; municipal events with separation between men and women; and avoiding the placement of female soldiers in bases where ultra-Orthodox soldiers serve – each of these receives support from about a quarter (26%) of the public.
The highest support among separation measures goes to separate academic study tracks for the ultra-Orthodox public: one-third of the public – 33% – views separation between men and women in an academic setting as legitimate. In this case, it can be argued that gender separation serves a worthy purpose: integrating the ultra-Orthodox into higher education and subsequently into the job market. This step therefore receives more legitimacy than others, but it does not reach a majority.
Naturally, support for gender separation is higher among government coalition voters (including voters for religious and ultra-Orthodox parties) compared to opposition voters. Yet even coalition voters have reservations about gender separation! For example, only 45% of coalition voters believe that municipal events with separation are legitimate; only 16% of coalition voters are willing to accept the placement of modesty signs.
In conclusion, the Israeli public demonstrates commitment to the value of equality and prefers this value over the protection of religious feelings. For most Israelis, the presence of men and women together in the public sphere is legitimate. Tolerance, for the public, does not mean legitimizing extreme intolerance that removes women from daily life and humiliates them. Women are an integral part of the public sphere and of the shared Israeli existence.
The writer is a senior research fellow at the Institute for Liberty and Responsibility at Reichman University.