The aim of this article is to analyze the phenomenon of the exclusion of women from the public sphere in Israel. The article describes some of the causes of this phenomenon, its impact on Israeli society, and the difficulty in confronting it. Israeli women have made impressive gains on many fronts, but the exclusion of women from the public sphere as a result of the influence of the growing Ultra-Orthodox minority, which imposes its norms on the general public, raises serious concerns. The exclusion of women manifests itself in several forms: gender segregation in public spaces, the effacement of women's images from the public sphere, and the suppression of women's voice. The infiltration of Orthodox Jewish fundamentalism into Israeli society may cause the regression of advancements previously made in women's rights in Israel. The article points to the limitations of the treatment of this phenomenon within a theory of multiculturalism, and suggests an alternative framework of discourse, which relies on concepts that are drawn from the literature on environmental ethics, public rights, and public ownership of space and resources.T he aim of this article is to analyze the phenomenon of the exclusion of women from the public sphere in Israel. I will describe some of the causes of this phenomenon, its impact on Israeli society, and the difficulty in confronting it.The status of women in Israel is paradoxical. On the one hand, there have been impressive gains in the advancement of women in many domains, while on the other there have recently been serious setbacks in their status. These setbacks are due to an accelerated process of radicalization of Orthodox Jewish fundamentalism among some religious communities and their political leaders. 1 These trends are met with sharp, albeit mostly ineffective, opposition and demonstrations from women and men, both religious and secular.The literature on gender inequity and discrimination against women in various societies and cultures is abundant. Much of the discussion is conducted within the framework of a theory of multiculturalism
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