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Gender and assimilation in modern Jewish history: The roles and representation of women
Book Reviews
the situation in Scandinavia where women seem to have made notable progress (politics and banking being two obvious examples). This reservation aside, the reader is offered a comprehensive overview of the many interlinking issues currently under investigation. The book has five sections. The first, The Negative Effects of Organisational Culture, looks at the cultural norms that are in play when we attempt to define what a manager is and how he or she should behave within an organisation. It explores in particular the detrimental impact of the White, male ethos on women managers. The second part, Issues in Career Development, focuses on the barriers that w o m e n m u s t o v e r c o m e to develop their careers, discussing among other things the double bind of the " m o m m m y track." This chapter also tackles stereotyping, selection bias, and gender in management/leadership. Part Three moves from these organisational and systems issues to confront the issues on an interpersonal level with a section on Gender and Relationships at Work. Susan Schick Case contributes a particularly interesting chapter on Gender Differences In Communication Behaviour in Organisations that examines the differences between girls' and boys' games. It would seem that boys are seemingly preparing themselves from the cradle for the one of the biggest boys games of them all; namely, organisational life with its hierarchies, competiveness, and power plays. Part Four moves out from the work organisation to examine Home - - Work Conflicts and the seemingly eternal triangle of work, home, and family. Part Five then looks at ways of getting more women into senior management programmes and evaluates Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Programmes in the USA, Australia, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kindom. It must be stated that this book is a formidable and valuable overview of recent research into women in management. It would be a worthwhile addition to the bookshelf of anybody with an interest in women in management and the range of issues that are in play. Why then does it all make gloomy reading? It could be the very thoroughness o f the book in its examination of the salient issues is demoralising to this weak-kneed reader, at least. The area is clearly fruitful for the researcher. In practical terms, if such research does not offer workable solutions, does its accumulative effect sometimes simply enlarge the problem and enmesh us within it? The need for knowledge gathered objectively and disinterestedly cannot and should not be dismissed. Perhaps the practitioner should be offered some possible strategies for action before she becomes immobilised by the enormity and seemingly never-ending nature of what she has to face and deal with. H~.w~NJOHNSON ROEHAMPTONINSTITUTE CENTRE FOR EDUCATIONALMANAGEMENT SOUTHLANDSCOLLEGE WIMBLF_.IM~NPARKSIDE,UNITEDKINGDOM
GENDER AND ASSIMILATION IN MODERN JEWISH HISTORY:.
THE ROLES AND REPRESENTATIONOF WOMEN, by Paula E. H y m a n , 197 pages. U n i v e r s i t y of W a s h i n g t o n Press, Washington, 1995. US$30.00 hard cover, $14.95 soft cover. Paula Hyman's book attempts to provide an in-depth critical analysis of the way that Jewish people tried to assimilate into their host communities in modern Jewish history. Her research is primarily focused on the communities of
471
western and central Europe, eastern Europe, and the United States at the turn of the century. The task she has set herself is to "explore the role of ideas about gender in the construction of Jewish identity in the modern period." In the first chapter, Hyman acknowledges the limitations that the use of the word assimilation has for describing such a diverse body of events but defends her use of it by saying that "both proponents and opponents of the accommodation of Jews to the norms of the non Jewish societies in which they have lived have accepted it." H y m a n ' s work continually seeks to show that although Jewish women assimilated along with their make counterparts, they did so in different frameworks. Some communities, according to H y m a n were highly critical of those w o m e n who did assimilate, blaming them for the perceived lack of Jewish identity that followed in their children. To back up her claims Hyman refers us to an article written in 1889 which states that "the Jewish woman was not the model of piety she had been only fifty years before: 'All the general qualities of the modern woman have developed in her at the expense of the particular qualities of the Jew.'" And, therefore, "'she leaves her children unfortunately, in absolute ignorance of their faith." Of course no author could write about this period without discussing the effect of the rising tide of antisemitism and the catastrophic events of the second world war on Jewish c o m m u n i t i e s . According to Hyman, whilst the success of men over the next decade was to be measured in terms of their achievements in the wider community, women were expected to contribute to the rebirth of the Jewish people by "creating a Jewish home." A case of his-story repeating itself perhaps? As Hyman concludes, only time will tell. Hyman succeeds in piecing together a fragmented story and making it into an extremely interesting and informative book. AMANDAMACKIE ILFORD, ESSEX UNtroD KL~GDOM
FgVmC.STTHF.Om' A~a THE STI~¥ OF F ~ edited by Susan Tower Hollis, Linda Pershing, and M. Jane Young, 414 pages. University of Illinois Press, Urhana and Chicago, 1993. This collection of essays on female artistic communication challenges the conscious and unconscious patriarchal assumptions in folklore theory and puts forward feminist interpretations, paradigms, and research strategies. The book achieves a new degree of sophistication in research at the intersection of feminist theory and folklore and explores a missing link between philosophy and practice in women's lives. Genres are considered as malleable social phenomenon open to multiplicity, emergence, transformation, and communicative use. In weaving together case studies and theoretical formulations, feminist folklorists focus on process, context, female-centered meaning, interrelatedness, and the experience and perceptions of the women involved. The first part looks at feminist deconstruction of male paradigms and the creation of female paradigms in folk theory. These essays introduced by Green, address alternative and oppositional means by which to challenge the male paradigm and the interweaving of folklore and feminism in fabricating a new understanding of women's marginal status in defined social contexts. Drawing on Herder, the father of Romantic Nationalism, Fox points out that folklore has been engendered from its
the situation in Scandinavia where women seem to have made notable progress (politics and banking being two obvious examples). This reservation aside, the reader is offered a comprehensive overview of the many interlinking issues currently under investigation. The book has five sections. The first, The Negative Effects of Organisational Culture, looks at the cultural norms that are in play when we attempt to define what a manager is and how he or she should behave within an organisation. It explores in particular the detrimental impact of the White, male ethos on women managers. The second part, Issues in Career Development, focuses on the barriers that w o m e n m u s t o v e r c o m e to develop their careers, discussing among other things the double bind of the " m o m m m y track." This chapter also tackles stereotyping, selection bias, and gender in management/leadership. Part Three moves from these organisational and systems issues to confront the issues on an interpersonal level with a section on Gender and Relationships at Work. Susan Schick Case contributes a particularly interesting chapter on Gender Differences In Communication Behaviour in Organisations that examines the differences between girls' and boys' games. It would seem that boys are seemingly preparing themselves from the cradle for the one of the biggest boys games of them all; namely, organisational life with its hierarchies, competiveness, and power plays. Part Four moves out from the work organisation to examine Home - - Work Conflicts and the seemingly eternal triangle of work, home, and family. Part Five then looks at ways of getting more women into senior management programmes and evaluates Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Programmes in the USA, Australia, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kindom. It must be stated that this book is a formidable and valuable overview of recent research into women in management. It would be a worthwhile addition to the bookshelf of anybody with an interest in women in management and the range of issues that are in play. Why then does it all make gloomy reading? It could be the very thoroughness o f the book in its examination of the salient issues is demoralising to this weak-kneed reader, at least. The area is clearly fruitful for the researcher. In practical terms, if such research does not offer workable solutions, does its accumulative effect sometimes simply enlarge the problem and enmesh us within it? The need for knowledge gathered objectively and disinterestedly cannot and should not be dismissed. Perhaps the practitioner should be offered some possible strategies for action before she becomes immobilised by the enormity and seemingly never-ending nature of what she has to face and deal with. H~.w~NJOHNSON ROEHAMPTONINSTITUTE CENTRE FOR EDUCATIONALMANAGEMENT SOUTHLANDSCOLLEGE WIMBLF_.IM~NPARKSIDE,UNITEDKINGDOM
GENDER AND ASSIMILATION IN MODERN JEWISH HISTORY:.
THE ROLES AND REPRESENTATIONOF WOMEN, by Paula E. H y m a n , 197 pages. U n i v e r s i t y of W a s h i n g t o n Press, Washington, 1995. US$30.00 hard cover, $14.95 soft cover. Paula Hyman's book attempts to provide an in-depth critical analysis of the way that Jewish people tried to assimilate into their host communities in modern Jewish history. Her research is primarily focused on the communities of
471
western and central Europe, eastern Europe, and the United States at the turn of the century. The task she has set herself is to "explore the role of ideas about gender in the construction of Jewish identity in the modern period." In the first chapter, Hyman acknowledges the limitations that the use of the word assimilation has for describing such a diverse body of events but defends her use of it by saying that "both proponents and opponents of the accommodation of Jews to the norms of the non Jewish societies in which they have lived have accepted it." H y m a n ' s work continually seeks to show that although Jewish women assimilated along with their make counterparts, they did so in different frameworks. Some communities, according to H y m a n were highly critical of those w o m e n who did assimilate, blaming them for the perceived lack of Jewish identity that followed in their children. To back up her claims Hyman refers us to an article written in 1889 which states that "the Jewish woman was not the model of piety she had been only fifty years before: 'All the general qualities of the modern woman have developed in her at the expense of the particular qualities of the Jew.'" And, therefore, "'she leaves her children unfortunately, in absolute ignorance of their faith." Of course no author could write about this period without discussing the effect of the rising tide of antisemitism and the catastrophic events of the second world war on Jewish c o m m u n i t i e s . According to Hyman, whilst the success of men over the next decade was to be measured in terms of their achievements in the wider community, women were expected to contribute to the rebirth of the Jewish people by "creating a Jewish home." A case of his-story repeating itself perhaps? As Hyman concludes, only time will tell. Hyman succeeds in piecing together a fragmented story and making it into an extremely interesting and informative book. AMANDAMACKIE ILFORD, ESSEX UNtroD KL~GDOM
FgVmC.STTHF.Om' A~a THE STI~¥ OF F ~ edited by Susan Tower Hollis, Linda Pershing, and M. Jane Young, 414 pages. University of Illinois Press, Urhana and Chicago, 1993. This collection of essays on female artistic communication challenges the conscious and unconscious patriarchal assumptions in folklore theory and puts forward feminist interpretations, paradigms, and research strategies. The book achieves a new degree of sophistication in research at the intersection of feminist theory and folklore and explores a missing link between philosophy and practice in women's lives. Genres are considered as malleable social phenomenon open to multiplicity, emergence, transformation, and communicative use. In weaving together case studies and theoretical formulations, feminist folklorists focus on process, context, female-centered meaning, interrelatedness, and the experience and perceptions of the women involved. The first part looks at feminist deconstruction of male paradigms and the creation of female paradigms in folk theory. These essays introduced by Green, address alternative and oppositional means by which to challenge the male paradigm and the interweaving of folklore and feminism in fabricating a new understanding of women's marginal status in defined social contexts. Drawing on Herder, the father of Romantic Nationalism, Fox points out that folklore has been engendered from its