Israel's women want equality, not special treatment
Opinion: Israeli society faces many complex challenges, but there is one central issue with a solution that is ultimately a simple choice, and that is parity between the sexes; so what exactly is the problem?
Israeli society is known for its boldness, willingness to try new things, to face challenges, to break boundaries. We have already proved this countless times, and this has already become part of our heritage in Israel.
"They who dare, win" more or less sums up the Israeli mentality. So why are women not daring and winning?
Israeli society is full of talented and courageous women. All you have to do is pick them. And I am not talking about the Knesset elections, but to day to day life itself.
We need more women in key positions, more women on the boards of public companies, more women as CEOs of government agencies. Not only does this not pose any kind of risk, it offers massive potential for positive change.
I do not pretend to know everything or to be able to predict the future, but from my experience I can testify that promoting girls improves any environment. When girls are encouraged to move into STEM studies, usually considered the domain of men, they achieve tremendous results.
It’s not a revolution, because this is not a battle of the sexes. It is a relatively minor demand, but one that still has to be made because we are some way from an ideal situation.
Giving women full equality does not mean that suddenly we will be invading the soccer pitch or competing against men in Olympic events – the physical differences are not going to evaporate. But there is difference between management positions and weight-lifting.
Why should we reserve special places for women on political party lists, while not seeing the obvious fact that talented women should be high on these lists, and not because they have a protected status?
Let women lead, and see what we can really do.
