Dear friends, We are approaching the third elections in one year in Israel, and in terms of women’s represen tation – the situation keeps going downhill… Before dispersing itself prior to the April 2019 elections, the Knesset boasted a record number of women since the establishment of the State of Israel: 35 women served as MKs. We had hoped for yet a new record in the coming elections, aspiring to one third of Knesset members being women, but reality swung the pendulum in the other direction: less women, in less senior positions, and for the first time after five consecutive elections – not a single woman heading a political party.
In recent years we’ve seen dramatic protests that significantly changed the public discourse, like the #metoo revolution, and we have also seen some advanced legislation, such as the law against prostitution. But at the same time, we are witnessing a significant digression in the representation of women in senior positions: less MKs, less executive directors in government offices and in senior regulation positions, and in the Tel Aviv index of the 125 largest public companies - there remains a lone female CEO among 124 men. As a new Knesset and government are formed in the coming weeks and months (hopefully) – we will be here to make sure this dangerous trend is reversed. Yours, Michal Gera Margaliot Executive Director | | | | Praying for the end of exclusion | | | | Last week we filed a petition for discrimination, with the Israel Religious Action Center, representing Maya Melitz from Jerusalem against the Israel Railways, about her train ride from Jerusalem to the Ben Gurion Airport. In a story published in Yedioth Ahronoth and on YNET, Melitz recounted the story, of sitting in a car where men started praying, and soon thereafter being asked by the usher to move to a different car, since she was disrupting the prayer. Melitz’s testimony is very disconcerting, and it’s not the first troubling account we have received about public transportation in Israel.
Public companies are obligated to verify that no exclusion of women takes place under their auspices, and certainly that no such actions are committed by their own representatives. We will continue to monitor the public sphere, in order to curtail exclusion in Israel.
| | | | | We need your support to continue protecting women’s rights and advancing the status of women in Israel! | | Tel: +972-036123990 | Fax: +972-6123991 | Email: resources@iwn.org.ilIsrael Women's Network, 26 Sa'adya Gaon Street Tel Aviv, Israel | | |
