By women for women: modernism, architecture, and gender in building the new Jewish society in Mandatory Palestine

This article explores issues of gender and modern architecture in Mandatory Palestine in the context of 1920s and 1930s modernism. Women architects, newly immigrated from Germany, collaborated with WIZO, Women's International Zionist Organisation, in building Domestic Science and Agriculture training schools for Jewish immigrant women in the country. WIZO adopted the concept of the modern domestic sphere, particularly the rational kitchen, believing that a modern and efficient household will benefit women and society as a whole. Thus, their planned schools were to be modern both in appearance and in their built-up space: rational, airy and full of light. The women architects who studied and worked in Germany prior to their immigration, emphasised these modernist concepts in their design. These early ambitious architectural achievements by women for women were unique in the context of modernism and helped structure the national identity of the ‘New re-formed domestic woman’ in Mandatory Palestine.