Ahead of Its Time: Ha’ishah Bamedinah—The Story of a Forgotten Women’s Journal in Israel

Abstract:The article reveals a historical source that has been overlooked in the research of Israeli society and women, including the history of Israeli feminism: the Hebrew journal Ha’ishah bamedinah, edited by Tehila Matmon and published for just four years, between 1949 and 1953. The journal’s declared mission was to raise the awareness of Israeli women to the intolerable gap between the State’s declared equality between men and women and the situation in real life, and to urge women to take action and release society of the chains of discrimination. The journal’s unique content and rhetoric may be one reason why it succumbed to oblivion. From a historical perspective, its editor was way ahead of her time.