More than a looking glass: Women in Israeli local politics and the media

Part of a larger study on women and local politics in Israel between 1950 and 1989, this article focuses on media strategies. It claims that reporting by Israeli media on women in local politics, even if sympathetic, is shaped by the basic exclusionary social frames that rest on the dichotomous notion of masculine/public/political versus feminine/private/apolitical. Using textual strategies, such as compartmentalization, protective chivalry, and framing women in traditional women's roles, the press reproduces a gendered world and an exclusionary perception of politics. These findings are based on a qualitative analysis of press coverage of local women in three leading national newspapers and women's magazines and on local newspaper clippings.