Female Landscape Architects in Israel: An Emerging Professional Community

Abstract

This article offers a feminist perspective on the intersection of gender and landscape architecture in Israel, focusing on the life experiences, achievements, and changing status of female practitioners. It addresses the specificity of the field’s local history while offering considerations for exploring modes of practice in other social, cultural, and geographical contexts neglected by canonical accounts. Although Israeli landscape architecture is dominated by Western paradigms, it has also been shaped by a significant number of unique characteristics. In addition, the particular social and cultural conditions that affect the lives of Israeli women make this local example worth examining. The discussion focuses on the experience of female landscape architects (FLAs) in Israel from the late 1970s to the present. The author examines the local shift in landscape architecture from a male-dominated field to one dominated by women, who now form the majority of academically trained students and lead professional firms. The article includes a qualitative study of 14 FLAs. The interviewees were divided in their positions on gender-related issues. Some rejected the existence of a gender-based style of design or mode of practice. Others found that their “feminine” or “soft” skills were of great value and that their ability to pay attention to the place and its inhabitants, and negotiate solutions, enabled them to succeed where more typically male practitioners failed.