Exclusion of Women

The exclusion of women constitutes one of the greatest threats to the equality and welfare of women in Israeli society today. Within the past decade, norms have emerged that limit the equal participation of women in almost every sphere: workplace, cultural arena, sports and leisure, academia, service sector, police and army.

Despite the public's familiarity with the term "exclusion of women," this terminology is still attributed to extreme phenomena and their dimensions and dangers are insufficiently understood by the public and policymakers. Although there are organizations that deal with specific issues of exclusion of women, the lack of an organization, to lead and coordinate the necessary comprehensive and multi-dimensional treatment in the struggle against exclusion, is apparent. The spread of exclusion norms goes hand in hand with the strengthening of the rhetoric of “Achdut Ha'am” (“Unity of the People”), “Shiluv”, religious tolerance, etc.; with the known tendency of women to move aside and concede in the face of arguments of general good such as arguments of unity (and this along with their structural weakness in asserting their right to be present and to participate); and the fact that many do not recognize the connection between one specific case and another and do not connect the dots to arrive at the conclusion that this is not a local concession but rather a phenomenon that poses real danger to women's equality and human dignity.

The project’s goal is to curb the phenomena of exclusion of women in Israel by a variety of means: mapping the phenomenon in Jewish and Arab society, influencing public discourse and activating the legal arena (legislation, regulation, enforcement and rulings), lobbying, education, Kashrut (Koshering) and more. The Israel Women's Network aspires to become the main address for appeals and activities to prevent exclusion, to become the central source of information on the subject, to become the central and leading organization in the coalition of organizations whose activities have tangential aspects to the exclusion of women, to become the central source of information and to formulate and become the leader of the vision and the policy on the subject.  Development and delivery of solutions – to demonstrate that Haredim can be promoted in academia, in business, in the military and so on in more balanced ways between freedom of religion and the impact on women.