16 Nov
2018 November-December, Israel

Six Women Who Are Breaking Israel’s Glass Ceiling

Rivka Carmi In 2006, Rivka Carmi became the president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), making her the first woman to serve as the president of an Israeli university. Prior to this, Carmi, a pediatrician and geneticist, was the first woman dean of an Israeli medical school, also at BGU. She was also the first woman to chair Israel’s Committee of University Presidents. Carmi, now 70, chose to be a scientist after a high school teacher told her mother that Carmi could study either science or humanities, but that humanities would be much easier. Then and there, she decided to study science. In a class of 22 students, she was one of only two girls. After medical school, she completed a residency in pediatrics, a fellowship in neonatology and then an additional fellowship in medical genetics at...

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22 May
2018 May/June, In the News, Israel, Women

The Equality Myth

The story of Israel’s founding usually  goes something like this: Sun-kissed male and female pioneers plowed the fields by day, danced the hora by night, did guard duty until dawn and together built an egalitarian utopia. The equality of men and women, the narrative continues, was enshrined into law upon independence in 1948 when women were given full equal social and political rights. Three years later, gender discrimination was outlawed. Meanwhile, as part of universal conscription, women also fought alongside men. To top the story off, Israel was the third country in the post-World War II world to be led by a female prime minister, following Ceylon and India: Golda Meir was elected Israel’s fourth prime minister in 1969 after long stints as labor minister and foreign minister. Although some of this is true, Israel is not...

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