The Institutionalization of Knowledge in Israeli Sex Education Programs: A Historical Review, 1948 - 1987

Abstract

This paper examines the development of sex education in Israel from the establishment of the State to the late 1980s. Sex education in Israel is reviewed historically as an inseparable relationship between professional knowledge and power, here crystallized in the institutionalization of sex education courses in the classroom and in sex education textbooks. However, the real issues concerning adolescent sexuality (active sexual relations, birth control, and pregnancy) have been avoided during the 30 years of sex education in Israel. Rather than providing accurate information to teenagers, sex education programs and textbooks have tended to reinforce new myths by ignoring adolescents' real needs and the existence of other models of sexuality. Instead, these information sources tend to reinforce the image of the ideal Western middle-class family, gender stereotypes, and patriarchal relationships.