Golda never identified as a feminist; others projected that onto her

Despite her desire to avoid being cast as a ‘feminist’ through becoming PM, the war ironically established a distinct gender discourse around her historical character.

Golda Meir never identified herself as a feminist, and almost never played (at least directly) the "gender card" or being a woman in a male political and public environment. Scholars and historians define Golda's relationship with the feminist movement as an "ambivalent relationship," and they provide various examples of the complex attitudes she had towards feminism.

During the Jewish Yishuv period, Golda felt alienated from the struggle of women organisations, such as the Union of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights in Erez Israel, for equality, right to vote, and political participation of women. The reason for this was her preference to associate herself in political alliances with men rather than with women, as she recognized that men could better help her in advancing her political and public career.

Some have argued that Golda was in fact "an appointment of the male leadership of Mapai and the Histadrut." Therefore, she tended to adopt the Zionist narrative, according to which the national struggle takes priority over any other social struggle, including the struggle for women’s rights. As part of this concept, even during her tenure as Prime Minister (1969-1974), Golda did not appoint a single female minister in her government.

However, one cannot ignore the fact that there is a certain paradox in Golda's character, because feminism was deeply embedded in her career, whether she wanted it or not. Firstly, feminism was extremely significant in Golda’s personal life as a prominent public figure, one of the founders of her state, who often had to balance housework and taking care of her children with activities in the public sphere. In this context, it should be noted that Golda’s children have stated more than once that they “sometimes felt an absence of a mother figure during their childhood”.