LSE Public Lecture Summary

Agency and Gender in Gaza: Masculinity, Femininity, and Family during the Second Intifada

Speaker: Dr. Aitemad Muhanna Matar
Date: January 20, 2014
Host: Dr. Sumi Madhok, LSE Gender Institute

Episode Overview

This episode features Dr. Aitemad Muhanna Matar discussing her book "Agency and Gender in Gaza: Masculinity, Femininity and Family during the Second Intifada." Drawing from extensive qualitative research with Gazan families between 2007 and 2010, Dr. Muhanna Matar explores how crisis and siege in Gaza have profoundly affected gender roles, family structures, and the self-understanding of both women and men. The session also includes an audience Q&A on methodological, theoretical, and contextual issues.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Research Context and Purpose

• Socioeconomic Background: The study focuses on the years 2000–2009, a period marked by intense insecurity, full Israeli blockade, destruction of livelihoods, and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
• Aim:
  • To understand how changes in gendered roles for family survival affect gender subjectivity.
  • To analyze why Gazan women, despite gaining new forms of power, continue to present themselves (and are presented) within the patriarchal moral order.
• Methodology:
  • 60 in-depth interviews with poor housewives from two different sites: Shuja'iyya (non-refugees) and Beach refugee camp.
  • Life stories and focus groups with both men and women.

"My research is... in the period 2007-2010 and it focuses on the socioeconomic context in Gaza during the Second Intifada, particularly the years of full Israeli siege... resulting in a crisis of masculinity and femininity."
— Dr. Matar (05:15)

2. Major Findings and Arguments

a. Dislocation of Gender Structure

• Traditional gender roles and generational hierarchies were disrupted:
  • Men's loss of income, influence, and ability to protect families.
  • Women became primary breadwinners and central in community activities.
  • Younger women gained prominence, while matriarchal figures like mothers-in-law lost status.
  • Marriage decisions became more pragmatic (e.g., young men marrying older, employed women).
  • Men became "more tolerant and cooperative," appreciating wives' sacrifices.
  • Women's public roles increased (distribution of humanitarian aid, jobs in NGOs).

b. Contradictory and Multiple Agency

• Despite acting as heads of households, women maintain a public image of subordination.
• Presentation strategies: Women and men deliberately maintain the ideology of male dominance to "preserve social continuity" and counteract the sense of social breakdown.

"Poor housewives actually act as the primary provider and main decision-maker... On the other hand, these women willingly enhance the presentation of their feminine subjectivity as subordinate..."
— Dr. Matar (21:07)

c. The Role of Moral Order

• Gendered subjectivity is shaped not only by economic necessity but also by a deep-rooted moral order formed under patriarchy.
• Agency is oriented as much to safeguarding moral/social recognition as to material survival.

"The complexity... is illustrated in how the gender subject... balances between the rationalization... and the moralization of agency."
— Dr. Matar (30:55)

d. Critique of Feminist Theory

• The findings challenge liberal and post-structural feminist models (e.g., Judith Butler):
  • Resistance does not always mean rejecting dominant gender norms.
  • Agency can be self-contradictory, involving both preservation and subtle subversion of patriarchal norms.
  • Gazan women's subjectivity is relational and context-dependent.

"I'm saying that the resistance of oppression never takes a singular form... nor necessarily leads to resistance to the ideology of male domination."
— Dr. Matar (36:19)

3. Notable Participant Testimonies (Selected Quotes)

On Women’s Contradictory Role:

• “We get tired from shahdat [searching, humiliation of searching for coupons]. We need our husbands to go back to work and we go back respected domesticated women.”
  (20:40)

• “It would be a mercy for me if I were a widow rather than to see my husband... with all his physical well-being unable to do anything.”
  (21:11)

• “Never fail, we are always careful not to make our husbands feel bad about what we do. Our men trust us… They know that we go out... for the necessity of living that men cannot meet at the current days.”
  — Um Hussam, non-refugee woman, late 40s (22:04)

On Men's Crisis and Response:

• “Does anyone of us expect his respected wife to be begging for a coupon? …Our wives are really determined... They bear this burden because they know it’s not through lack of manliness that we cannot earn income, but the closure which is out of our control.”
  — Aburami, middle-aged man, former contractor (23:45)

4. Audience Q&A Highlights

a. Why Are Gazans Poor? (41:02)

• Dr. Matar highlights that poverty is a direct result of Israeli siege policies and the inadequacy of humanitarian aid:

“Humanitarian aid has been perceived till today as humiliating... People want to live in respected circumstances.” (43:12)

b. Is Agency Only About Subordination? (42:43)

• It is a contextual, not universal, observation—study sample is the poorest segment; findings cannot be generalized to middle/upper-class or politically empowered women.

“You can't generalize the findings of my book… Gender subjectivity is contextual but also self-reflective and self-creative.” (44:51)

c. Women's Relationships with Other Women (42:00–44:30)

• Crisis reduced solidarity; competition for scarce aid undermined traditional cooperation:

“Solidarity amongst women has undermined because of the humanitarian crisis.” (46:00)

d. Middle-Class and Alternative Experiences (47:53)

• Theoretical differences in agency between poorer and middle-class women; need for further, comparative research.

e. Critique of Development Definitions of Agency (48:33–52:00)

• Standard frameworks (e.g., World Bank's) are insufficient, as agency is highly context-specific.

“Empowerment, disempowerment are both needed in a certain context… Women who have to go to look for coupons, they prefer to be perceived as disempowered, not autonomous, in order to keep their self respect.” (53:00)

f. Male Strategies and Evolving Masculinities (56:00+)

• Masculinity was found to be fluid, not static:

“Masculinity is multiple, contradictory, changing contextual, changing with a changing socioeconomic context.” (57:06)

g. Historical Dynamics & Political Context (71:10+)

• The ideals of female militants have shifted over decades; maintenance of patriarchal moral order seen as survival strategy under both occupation and crisis.

h. Class, Activism, and Alternative Women’s Agency (79:53+)

• There exist many forms of agency, including those by secular, activist, or professional women. The study focused on the most vulnerable households for depth, not breadth.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Agency's Complexity:
  "The message from my book to all those studying women's agency... is to think that agency isn't unpredictable. It's always changing, not only with the context but with the individual experiences of women within the same context." (37:39)

• On Presentation and Resistance:
  "This presentation of masculinity and femininity as an important constituent of gender ideology is a dynamic... to maintain the distorted ideology of gender invisible, and as a consequence, the whole society maintains its symbolic social continuity..." (27:47)

• On Moral Order vs. Economic Reality:
  "The female subject in Gaza, as in many other patriarchal societies, has historically been constructed to be relational—that is, to be identified and signified by the significant other through which the whole society maintains its social identity and meaning." (35:10)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Intro & Context Setting: 00:00 – 04:00
• Overview of Research & Methods: 05:00 – 13:00
• Findings – Dislocation of Gender Structure: 13:00 – 22:00
• Contradictory Agency & Moral Order: 22:00 – 32:00
• Critique of Feminist Theories: 32:00 – 36:30
• Concluding Remarks: 36:30 – 38:40
• Audience Q&A: 39:40 – end

Tone and Language

Dr. Matar maintains an analytical, empathetic, and reflexive tone, often grounding abstract theory in tangible, lived experiences shared by her interviewees. The discussion is both scholarly and deeply personal, iterating respect for Gazan resilience and the complexities of gendered agency.

Summary Takeaways

• The gender order in Gaza during crisis is not simply reversed, but rather becomes more complex as both men and women negotiate self-presentation in ways that seek to maintain social cohesion and personal dignity.
• Women’s agency, even when markedly expanded in practice, may still be negotiated within the bounds of patriarchal moral order for the sake of family and community continuity.
• Humanitarian crisis, rather than uniformly empowering women, often forces both genders into adaptive but contradictory identities and relations.
• Feminist and development frameworks must account for context-specific, relational, and morally-inflected forms of agency rather than applying universal definitions.

For further exploration, Dr. Matar’s book provides in-depth narratives, theoretical frameworks, and a comprehensive look into gender under siege in Gaza.