“She’s Got a Man’s Head on Her Shoulders”: Ada Fishman (Maimon) as a Test Case for Private, Public and Gendered Aspects of Women’s Political Activity

This article sets to examine the relationship between gender and politics in the process of nation-building, focusing on two prominent women leaders: Ada Fishman (Maimon) and Golda Myerson (Meir). Both were active in the period in which the groundwork was laid for the emergent Zionist society in Eretz Israel. Fishman (Maimon) was an ardent feminist activist who devoted her life to the empowerment of women, in both the private and the public domains. Despite her longevity, independent personality and broad-ranging activity, she was consigned to oblivion in Israel’s collective memory. As for Myerson (Meir), her leadership was hallmarked by loyalty and devotion to her party and to the country’s established political leadership. Not only did Myerson’s image remain vivid; it became the epitome of women’s equality in modern Israel. Fishman’s and Myerson’s life stories have much in common, but their paths, both as leaders and in their private lives, were quite different. An analysis of their interactions with the national society, and their respective interpretations of the place of women as its citizens, may help us understand the differences between types of women leaders in the yishuv (the pre-state Jewish community of Eretz Israel). What were the dominant aspects of their respective leadership styles, and to what extent were these colored by their status as women leaders and their respective attitudes towards women’s roles in the political system? Can a woman leader be “feminist” despite her “masculine” leadership style? And how did the actions of Ada Fishman and Golda Myerson determine their public images for generations to come?