Women

Living in the shadow of a violent conflict keeps security at the top of the national agenda, pushing aside equally important issues such as health, transportation, welfare, infrastructure and education. When the discussion is dominated by the security establishment, solutions for prevention, retaliation and even negotiation remain within the confines of military thought, and decision-making gets stuck in a rut. Creative thinking is not allowed in and discourse becomes automatic. Decisions are based on expert assessments that are all forged in the same breeding ground. Against this background, Women Waging Peace championed two goals: promoting a respectful agreement to end the conflict and increased participation of women in foreign and security policy-making in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1325. 

The Handbook of Organizational Gender Consultation and Intervention, published in 2019 by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, is the first guide of its kind. Its aim is to provide a professional toolbox for men and women operating as agents of gender equality in modern organizations, either formally (appointees, consultants, and individuals responsible for equal opportunity and gender equality) or informally (as feminists aiming to promote change in the organization or in their institutional field).

The purpose of this field guide is to present the Gender Equality in Action intervention model, its rationale and assumptions, in order to provide a common language and knowledge base for action. The intervention model is based on experience accumulated over the last years from a number of diverse groups operating as part of the program, and on case studies and research literature.

In cooperation with the organizations Itach-Maaki and Agenda, The Center for the Advancement of Women in the Public Sphere (WIPS) in the Jerusalem Van Leer Institute is spearheading the project to formulate an Israeli action plan for the implementation of UNSCR 1325. Many countries have already succeeded in implementing a national action plan (NAP) for increasing women's participation in processes of conflict resolution. This initiative builds upon the experience in other countries in formulating an Action Plan that is relevant to the Israeli context.

A gender perspective on sports allocations in Israel reveals a picture already known: women and girls are much less represented than men in competitive sports and receive much less national and municipal support.

We are happy to present a groundbreaking report on Women and Environmental Health in Israel written by our partner Ella Nave of the Coaloition of Public Health

On the 11th anniversary of the Security Council’s Resolution 1325, Heinrich Boell Foundation Israel supported the issue of Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics and Culture: Women and Power. This issue presents an in-depth analysis of gender perspectives, particularly the impact of the conflict on women and women’s role in peacebuilding.

Gender mainstreaming is a new approach to designing and assessing gov­ernment and municipal activities. This approach increases transparency and ensures that public activities are designed to address the differential needs of women and men.  Gender mainstreaming entails a new way of thinking about the differences be­tween women and men (and between girls and boys) – their behaviors, roles, and needs – every time a program or a budget is designed or assessed.  A gender analysis cannot be performed on the work of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor because not all the departments collect data by gender. In the absence of data disaggregated by gender, and out of a desire to pro­mote a gender analysis of state programs and budgets, this document high­lights areas in which data should be collected by gender and the benefits that could be derived from such data.