THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM

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.