Merit Over Gender

Dr. Aliza Bloch and Mayor Moshe Abutbul meet after the election (VIN)

I have to give Dr. Aliza Bloch credit. She is someone that people of all Hashkafos should admire. JTA has called her a reluctant Orthodox feminist. Dr. Bloch has placed her city’s welfare above gender politics. Something that is anathema to modern day feminists. Modern day feminists would be appalled that a woman would not place the advancement of women in society as the highest priority. But Aliza Bloch will not have any of that.

This is in large part what is wrong with modern day feminism. It is no longer about treating men and women equally. And not looking at gender when making any kind of decision. It should not matter whether a man or a woman is chosen to fill a job of any kind. It should only matter how qualified they are. The more qualified individual should get the job regardless of whether they are male of female.

Newly elected mayor of Bet Shemesh, Aliza Bloch, is that kind of individual. She is about doing the best job for her city she can. In that capacity she sees her gender as secondary to her job.

This is not in line with those calling for affirmative actions with respect to hiring more women for municipal positions in order to satisfy notions of equality of the sexes. That places gender over qualification. 

For the sake of the city, I hope that does not happen. The city needs competent people at municipal jobs that will be hired based on merit. Not based on gender. It shouldn’t be the 2^nd best person for the job just because she is a woman. It should be the best person for the job, regardless of whether it is a man or a woman. That is the old time feminism of which I consider myself an adherent. And of which - it appears - Dr. Bloch is too. Affirmative action is just discrimination in reverse.

Unfortunately gender politics is what drives much of the left - along with their willing accomplices in the mainstream media.  This is what happened in the United States where we just had a midterm election. There is hardly a commentator in any of the mainstream media that failed to mention the ‘importance’  of the increase of women elected to public office in the last election. That is usually followed by ‘we have a long way to go before we get to full gender equality’.  As though it almost didn’t matter whether the more qualified individual won. It only mattered that it was a woman.

I have no problem with having an equal number of men and women serving in congress. I wouldn’t even care if the majority of congress were women, provided they were the most qualified for the job. But to look at gender as the most important feature puts equality ahead of quality. This is wrong headed and counterproductive. 

If this were - for example - applied to the medical field then we would end up with a number of individuals that are less than the best at their jobs. Do we really want any but the most qualified doctors involved in our individual or communal health care? Not me! The same should be true for any field of endeavor. Including choosing our political leaders.

I therefore salute Dr. Bloch for her courage to let her sense of right and wrong supersede her sense of feminism.  An example of her courage is in an issue about which I care very much. Read on.

I have been highly critical of the erasure of women from the public square that has become more prevalent in certain Orthodox circles. I believe it to be an unreasonable and extreme application of modesty laws that is unfair to women and does much harm in how women are seen (unseen?) in Orthodoxy. It is an outrage - and I could not protest more about this new ‘innovation’. I have been speaking out against that ever since I noticed it for the first time in mainstream Charedi publications that do not publish any pictures of women. 

And yet I give Dr.  Bloch a lot of credit for not posting any pictures of herself in Charedi neighborhoods during the campaign. Even though she probably feels at least as strongly about this as I do. Not only that - but by not doing that she placed herself at a disadvantage to her male opponent, incumbent Mayor Moshe Abutbul. He was able to freely post as many pictures as he wanted. 

But at the end of the day, that decision gave her something else: a demonstration of her respect to those who see pictures of women as some sort of Tznius violation. Respect begets respect. I think that helped her gain a critical number of Charedi votes.

Dr. Bloch is Dati (Modern Orthodox/Religious Zionist) and has proven her respect for her Charedi citizens. At the same time, she will no doubt certainly serve ALL  the people whether they are Charedi, Dati, or secular. No one will be short changed if she can help it. Except perhaps modern day feminism itself. Something she has already spoken to via her decision to not post any pictures of herself in Charedi neighborhoods out of respect for the views of people she actually disagrees with. 

This is a win for all of Bet Shemesh. It is also a win for the kind of feminism that counts. Which is where merit takes precedence over gender. Dr. Bloch is off to a good start. And I for one take much satisfaction in the way she won.

(Updated - 11/12/18)