The Only Woman in the Room: Golda Meir and Her Path to Power

by Pnina Lahav

Overview

A feminist biography of the only woman to become prime minister of Israel

In this authoritative and empathetic biography, Pnina Lahav reexamines the life of Golda Meir (1898–1978) through a feminist lens, focusing on her recurring role as a woman standing alone among men. The Only Woman in the Room is the first book to contend with Meir’s full identity as a woman, Jew, Zionist leader, and one of the founders of Israel, providing a richer portrait of her persona and legacy.

Meir, Lahav shows, deftly deflected misogyny as she traveled the path to becoming Israel’s fourth, and only female, prime minister, from 1969 to 1974. Lahav revisits the youthful encounters that forged Meir’s passion for socialist Zionism and reassesses her decision to separate from her husband and leave her children in the care of others. Enduring humiliation and derision from her colleagues, Meir nevertheless led in establishing Israel as a welfare state where social security, workers’ rights, and maternity leave became law. Lahav looks at the challenges that beset Meir’s premiership, particularly the disastrous Yom Kippur War, which led to her resignation and withdrawal from politics, as well as Meir’s bitter duel with feminist and civil rights leader Shulamit Aloni, Meir’s complex relationship with the Israeli and American feminist movements, and the politics that led her to distance herself from feminism altogether.

Exploring the tensions between Meir’s personal and political identities, The Only Woman in the Room provides a groundbreaking new account of Meir’s life while also illuminating the difficulties all women face as they try to ascend in male-dominated fields.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691239330
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	03/19/2024
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Pnina Lahav is emerita professor of law and a member of the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies at Boston University. She is the author of the award-winning Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century.

Table of Contents

Introduction xi

Part I Growing Up

1 In Imperial Russia 3

2 To America 12

3 Goldie and Morris Get Married 27

4 Finding Her Vocation: Political Activism 35

Part II Palestine, 1921-1948

5 The USS Pocahontas 53

6 A Sojourn in Tel Aviv 57

7 Comrade Golda and Comrade Morris in Kibbutz Merhavia 60

8 Love and Marriage: Not a Fairy Tale 69

9 The Attraction of Socialist Politics 85

10 Pioneer Women: A Platform of Her Own 103

11 World War II: The Ground Is Burning 112

Part III 1948-1964

12 From Israel's First Emissary to the Soviet Union to Minister of Labor 127

13 In Israel's First Cabinet: Golda Is Appointed Minister of Labor 133

14 Golda's Conception of the Family 143

15 Enter the "Other Woman": Shabbat, the "Sacred Queen," and the Secular Minister of Labor 151

16 Golda's Appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1956 161

17 Golda's First International Crisis: The Nationalization of the Suez Shipping Company 169

18 The African Connection 196

Part IV 1964-1978

19 Ascendance: Madam Prime Minister 203

20 Golda as an Object of Humiliation 216

21 From Bathtub to Pedestal: An Interview with Oriana Fallaci 223

22 Golda and Her Nemesis: Shulamit Aloni and the Question of Who Is a Jew 228

23 Who Is a Jew? Individual Rights, Jewish Law, the Expediency of Politics, and the "Foreign Woman" 236

24 Golda and the Revival of Feminism 253

25 Nightmare: The Yom Kippur War 264

26 In the Company of Men 271

27 The End 286

Acknowledgments 297

Notes 301

Index 337

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This is a remarkable book. Pnina Lahav paints a portrait of Israel’s fourth prime minister that is at once fascinating and nuanced. Lahav brilliantly deploys the lens of gender to illuminate the life of Golda Meir, the history of Israel, and the history of feminism.”—Laura Kalman, University of California, Santa Barbara

“The Only Woman in the Room is the definitive biography of Golda Meir. Nuanced, honest, and empathetic, it provides new insights into the life of a towering individual and decades of Israeli history. A tour de force.”—Jane Sherron de Hart, author of Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life

“The only woman in the pantheon of Israel’s founders, Golda Meir struggled to create and lead a state while facing constant resistance from her male counterparts. Pnina Lahav’s account of this struggle is enthralling, wonderfully perceptive, and deserves a wide readership.”—Derek Penslar, Harvard University

“Pnina Lahav’s compelling biography of Golda Meir sheds new light on the first and only woman to serve as prime minister of Israel, and presents a fresh view of gender’s impact on leadership.”—Dvora Hacohen, author of To Repair a Broken World: The Life of Henrietta Szold, Founder of Hadassah

Editorial Reviews

Winner of the Prime Minister Golda Meir Prize, Golda Meir Institute for Leadership

From the Publisher

"Ground-breaking."

Jewish News Life Magazine

2022-06-17
An in-depth portrait of a woman of contradictions.

An emeritus law professor and member of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies, Lahav takes a feminist perspective in her examination of Golda Meir (1898-1978), the former prime minister of Israel, seeking to show how “she balanced her womanhood with her political ambitions.” Born in Kiev, Golda (as she preferred to be called) was the second daughter in a traditional patriarchal family; she was expected to marry and become a homemaker. The family moved to America in 1906, settling in Milwaukee, where Golda became increasingly oppressed by her parents’ strictures. When she was 14, she took off for Denver, joining her older sister. There, she became attracted to the nascent Zionist party and began her career as a Zionist-socialist activist. By 1921, she had married and moved with her husband to Palestine, where her “energetic talents” were prized. The marriage, though, suffered, even after the couple had two children. Golda and her husband separated, and she relegated her child care to nannies so she could devote herself to politics. Despite misogyny both within Israel and abroad, Golda rose to prominence. Although she was not named to the nation’s first cabinet in 1948, a slight that angered her, she soon gained central roles: as minister of labor and social security in 1949, minister of foreign affairs in 1956, and Israel’s first female prime minister in 1969. Lahav tries to understand Golda’s lack of interest in feminism, her refusal to “challenge the othering of women,” and her vehement criticism of the women’s liberation movement by speculating about what Golda “might have” felt and by posing salient questions. Famously called “the ablest man in the cabinet” by her mentor, David Ben-Gurion, she was deeply aware that she navigated a man’s world, but as Lahav shows, she felt no responsibility to break the glass ceiling for other women. Her interest was solely in the survival of Israel.

A thoughtful portrait of a complex world leader.

Kirkus Reviews