Global Leaders in Women's Rights Advocacy Converge at TAU

As part of their recent mission — "The Road to Tomorrow: Women Leading Change" — the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) brought women leaders from across the United States together on the Tel Aviv University campus in February, 2013. A highlight of the trip, they participated in a session with Israeli advocates who are working to protect and advance the rights of women, children and families across the country.

The tour, which celebrated NCJW's 65 years of commitment to Israel, introduced American progressive women leaders to the unique challenges facing Israeli women and the work of women's rights organizations in a variety of fields — including politics, advocacy, policy-making and more. This trip was sponsored in collaboration with the Israel Action Network.

Prof. Hannah Naveh, Dean of the David and Yolanda Katz Faculty of the Arts and the original founder of The NCJW Women and Gender Studies Program at TAU, welcomed the participants and commended the ongoing partnership between NCJW and the university. Since opening its doors 14 years ago, the program has changed the landscape of Women and Gender Studies in Israel, becoming the first degree program of its kind in the Middle East and giving students an academic basis from which to approach women's issues.

"What the NCJW has done for us is unimaginable — their endowment enabled us to become a significant academic program, and empowered us to speak loud and clear on campus and outside of it" she said, noting that the program has grown to include both undergraduate and graduate students. Consistent with the aims of NCJW, the mission of the Women and Gender Studies program is to "build bridges between academia and the grassroots movements" and "work to make sure that women are never left out of the decision-making room," she added.

Banding together for a common mission

During the conference, mission participants were introduced to the leaders of a number of the organizations behind the collaborative initiative of Shutafot. This newly formed partnership among seven of Israel's leading feminist groups focuses on ensuring gender justice and economic and employment equality in Israel, and responding to these issues in real-time.

Hamutal Gouri, Director of the Daphna Fund, thanked the mission for "coming to this crazy and wonderful place that we call home," and called the coming together of the organizations under the umbrella of Shutafot a "collaborative effort on the ground".  Some of the aims of the organization include preserving the rights of low income women, female economic empowerment, helping women who are victims of violence and helping women get employment skills and training for entry into the workforce.

The concept came together organically, said Barbara Swirski from the Adva Center. Amidst two events in Israel that the media was attempting to suppress — the sexual assault conviction of a former president of Israel, and the attempt to raise the female retirement age without addressing employment concerns for older women — the organizations that comprise Shutafot realized they needed to ban together to ensure that such issues were could no longer be hidden in the darkness.

Mission participants also heard from Galit Desheh, Executive Director of the Israel Women's Network and Director Shula Keshet from Achoti — a Mizrahi feminist movement that focuses on fair trade and the economy — whose organizations are also founding members of Shutafot. Representatives from Itach-Maaki, women lawyers for social justice, also attended to present their plan to ensure the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which calls for the full and equal participation of women in peace and security initiatives.