`Four Mothers'

The article presents a thematic analysis of newspaper coverage and indepth interviews with activists of an anti-occupation protest movement in Israel called `Four Mothers'. It suggests that journalists employed several gender-biased discourse strategies that framed the movement as a `mother's voice' rather than a civil one: emphasizing the maternal, rather than the issues addressed by the movement; use of biased patterns to introduce female activists; and compartmentalization of the movement's activities. In light of the movement's significant political gains, these strategies can be interpreted in conflicting ways. One possibility explored is that playing to gender-appropriate expectations in the public sphere can serve as a subversive strategy to legitimize the infiltration of a female perspective to a national discourse on traditionally perceived male issues of war and security.