ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the pivotal personal relationships of women of the immigrant generation, and how the shape and are shaped by the social concerns of the women and their continual adjustments to Israeli society. In short, brother and sister were related by social obligations which women of the immigrant generation remembered as being indestructible. The contemporary marital relationship is a complicated one, coloured with ideas from the past in Yemen and constrained by the realities of Israel. In Israel, the immigrant generation has endured many pitfalls and setbacks in the road to achieving self–esteem and economic security. An important aspect of patriarchal authority was thus undermined; and evidence suggests that the loss of authority, together with other changes, has had a profound and lasting effect on many men of the immigrant generation. There are many household tasks which men of the immigrant generation simply will not do: washing clothes, washing floors and cooking are “women’s work.”
