Suffragist Mother-Teachers: Familial and Professional Identity Through the Entangled Historical Lens of Mandatory Palestine, 1918–1926

This article illuminates the interface between three female teacher identity structures: professional, political activist, and familial through the lens of entangled history. Approximately half of the leading activists in the suffragist movement in Mandatory Palestine were teachers. Three outstanding teachers were elected to the two assemblies of the Jewish community in Palestine (equivalent to parliament) in 1920–1926. Examination of their family profile shows that they were mothers and married to known professional figures. These characteristics raise several issues such as: What can we learn from this about the relationship between a teacher’s professional and political identity and her family life? What can we learn about the gender definition of the teaching profession in Hebrew society? Employing the entangled history lens which, based, e.g., on the historical conditions of the Hebrew society, the nonexistence of the marriage ban, could clarify the phenomenon of the Suffragist Mother-Teachers in 1920s.