Elana Sztokman

Women gathered at the Modi’in mall tonight, not to shop, thank heavens, but to attend the 55th Women’s Parliament in the newly unveiled lecture hall on the premises. Dr. Esther Herzog, the visionary behind this important initiative, listed the many impressive achievements of previous Parliaments, from promoting anti-pornography legislation to backing the first woman presidential candidate for Israel. This latest Parliament, the first one in Modi’in, organized in cooperation with the Women’s Council of the Modi’in municipality under the leadership of Ofira Krakower, offered a panel of stimulating speakers examining the topic of gender and economics and the ways in which privatization and recession affect women’s lives.

The status of women in the Israeli economy has not improved at all over the past twenty years, argued Dr. Orly Benjamin of Bar Ilan University, who cited the fact that women have been earning approximately 60 agurot to the shekel compared to men’s salaries since the mid-1980’s. She added, however, the troubling ways in which the privatization of the economy disproportionately affects women. “Women continue to dominate in certain professions,” – e.g., education, secretarial, nursing, and cleaning – “making the State the single biggest employer of women. So when the government orders a two percent across the board budget cut, who do you think will suffer from this the most?” she asked.

In addition, she noted the many devious manipulations that employers use for achieving the same result from workers while paying them less. Temporary positions, lower-ranking positions, positions with no benefits, and most notoriously per-hour positions are some of the tactics that employers, including the government, use to get the same out of women while saving themselves money. Benjamin called on women to fight for proper jobs with proper benefits, and to make their municipalities accountable for offering jobs with terrible conditions, especially the practice of per-hour jobs. “Women have the right to dignity in their work,” she said, “and we must fight for that right.”

I would add to the list of damning practices the way universities hire “marzot min hachutz” – adjunct professors – in order to avoid giving young academics a proper job. Fifty percent of all lecturers in the university system work this way, and of course men are more likely to get bumped into a tenure track than women. A typical min-hachutz position at Benjamin’s Bar Ilan University takes home 750 NIS ($175) a month per course for four months in the year, with no benefits, no pension, no accrued tenure, and no guarantee that a course will continue from year to year. These lecturers went on strike last year and supposedly came to an agreement to at least get paid 12 months a year and get some benefits, but rumour has it there may be a follow up strike for lack of implementation. Anyway, this is just one corner of a very troubled and troubling system, one that is especially hard on women.

Levana Fishman, financial adviser and newly elected member of the Modi’in city council and in impressive woman overall, urged women to take control of their finances. “I’m still shocked whenever I hear women say that they don’t know anything about their household budgets,” she said. “‘Pension? Ask him. Savings? He knows it all.’ In the year 2009, even high-powered women with great careers fall into traps of old gender paradigms.” Fishman runs workshops for women, and has some plans in the works for Modi’in. Perhaps the next Suze Orman of Israel, Levana Fishman is most definitely a woman to watch.

Sonya Yuval of WIZO Modi’in described the many challenges of being a single parent trying to work a nine-hour day. Many women leave for work at 6AM in order to get to the 4PM school pick up. I must admit that I don’t see this as an issue for single mothers only. These ridiculous working expectations, which are so out of step with world trends, are difficult on everyone, women and men, single and married, parents and non-parents alike. An expectation of a nine-hour workday (coupled of course with the insanely persistent six-day workweek in Israel), means that if there is a commute involved, a person is out of the home for 11 hours a day as a the bare minimum of work time. I know plenty of women who are at their desks before 7AM in order to be on time to pick up their their children at 4PM. It’s madness! These women are not working “extra” or “overtime” but just trying to meet expectations of a “normal” full time job in Israel. No wonder everyone in this country is so stressed out.

Elsewhere in the world, these expectations have already broken down over the past two decades. Flex-time, tele-commuting, per-project or per-performance compensation, 7 ½ hour workdays, and even four day workweeks have become the norm elsewhere (not to mention quality on-site daycare which, given the popularity of Google as an Internet portal rather than a company model, remains a pipe dream.). Smart employers have long ago realized that a good worker is not one who has no life but rather one who has a happy life. “Work-life balance” has been the buzz word in the United States for so long that it’s almost at its used by date – and yet, sadly, it has yet to arrive in Israel. I wouldn’t even know how to say “work-life balance” in Hebrew. It does not exist linguistically or conceptually in Israeli culture.

I would like to suggest that women – and men – demand a complete redefinition of what constitutes work. An hour of time does not equal an hour of work. That hour depends on the worker’s context. If she is supported, respected, empowered, independent and content, that hour is infinitely more productive than if she is stressed, exhausted, anxious, and overtaxed. Self-respected people are just better performers than robotic maniacs. Employers need to start judging performance not by how many hours are punched in but rather by the work that people produce. I know this suggestion causes an uproar among the anal, control-freakish, pencil-pushing types who typically manage Israeli organizations and view work as a reflection of time rather than as the product of a human being. But it’s just wrongheaded and damaging. Companies need to stop watching where a worker’s tush is and start paying attention to the whole person. The current system thus not only marks one more social issue in which Israel desperately needs to get in step, but it also constitutes one of the greatest causes of stress, road rage, and general frustration among Israeli women and men. This kind of reform is greatly needed for all of Israel and would do wonders in improving quality of life all around.

Municipalities also need to focus on women not only as caretakers (and shoppers) but as workers. As we sat there in the mall, which is patronizingly dubbed “city center”, I was reminded of how much the municipality tends to think of its citizens – especially its women – as consumers rather than as producers. My goal in life is not to spend my day shopping. I would rather have a life in which working and being with my family are comfortable, productive and happy activities. I hope that this next government will view us differently and look for creative ways to bring family-friendly jobs to Modi’in. I think that as a citizen, I have the right to earn money with dignity before I am asked to spend it.

Overall, the evening was a wonderful opportunity to be in the company of smart, concerned, feminist women – and men – fighting for change. Notwithstanding the dimwitted comments by former mayoral candidate Yigal Zadok who dismissed the entire panel as “whining, turn-myself-into-a-victim types” and proceeded to describe from his audience spot how many women are in the Ashdod municipality (hey, buddy, the election is over, so stop campaigning – though if this is your idea of being charming, no wonder you lost), nonetheless, there was a lot of fascinating discussion. Some audience members contributed interesting perspectives. Sigalit Hendler Farkash, one of the few women in the previous government who lost her council spot in the recent election, suggested that the problem is in the fact that “girls are educated to be too timid, and they don’t insist on being treated with respect.” I would certainly agree that education is key in changing societal patterns, but I am wary of blaming women for their inferior status in the workforce. Certainly both men and women are socialized into gendered roles, the very ones that Levana described in which men take care of the money while women take care of daycare pickup. But to blame women for being socialized that way is akin to blaming a rape victim for wearing a short sleeve shirt. That’s an old and not very helpful way of thinking.

Yes, let’s educate men and women, girls and boys, to challenge gender expectations and unequal economic and work practices in Israeli society. Everyone will benefit from such changes, especially our children, who will ultimately benefit from an improved society for their generation.