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March 12th, 2021 
Awake Goy “As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!
As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men,For they are women’s children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses.”–“Bread and Roses” by James Oppenheim, from American Magazine published December 1911 under the byline “the women in the West.”
Every year, workplaces in Israel distribute thousands of flowers to show their appreciation for their female employees on International Women’s Day. At the same time, these workplaces give women fewer opportunities to succeed compared to men. There is a wide gap between the number of women in leadership roles and their male counterparts and a gap in wages.
According to the latest OECD data on the gender pay gap, women in Israel earn 87% of what men earn, for full time work. Male workers outnumber female workers. There is 60% female labor participation. In STEM positions, while women are nearly as likely to get jobs as men, they are often paid less.
In the southern Negev desert, these pressures are more acute where women are more likely to fear losing their homes and livelihoods. The education organization Sidreh found Bedouin women–most of whom live in the Negev, have the highest rates of illiteracy in Israel. The group found “between the ages 55-64, the illiteracy rate reaches 35%, and above that age it reaches 68%.”
The partial involvement of Arab women in the labor market has an impact on the position of women within the society. However, only 23%, of Muslim women 19% of Druze women and 16% of Bedouin have higher education degrees, compared to 50% of Jewish women.
Women who are fortunate enough to find a job at a factory often have to travel to an industrial zone since there are few industrial zones in Arab localities, a challenge further exacerbated by the fact that a majority of Arab municipalities lack the adequate public transportation infrastructure.
In many parts of the world, these statistics show huge strides in the modern struggle of women. In Israel, I find there are women who would consider themselves lucky to have an underpaid position.
In 2020, 19 women were killed by their spouses and the organization Naamat estimates around 200,000 women in Israel experience domestic abuse. The government turns a blind eye to the conditions of these women. A report from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women found in its mission to Israel from 2000 to 2015 “300 women were killed by their domestic partners.”
The gravity of discrimination against women is exacerbated in Palestinian homes through so-called “honor killings.” Palestinian society is governed by a traditional patriarchal system, and this patriarchal structure of the family influences social behaviors, relations, roles, and responsibilities. The Israeli government fails to stop the abuse and the violence and ignores it under the claim of cultural sensitivity and traditional backgrounds, making Arab women more abused and discriminated against. The same UN report found Bedouin women are “overrepresented among the victims of femicide.” Their mission revealed, police “investigations were often closed due to a lack of evidence and that those prosecuted received light sentences.”
Other laws formalize institutional limits on the rights of women.
The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law discriminates against all Israeli citizens by preventing family reunification between Israeli citizens who marry Palestinians from the occupied Palestinian territory, or nationals from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Iran, with the exception of Jews who originate from those countries.
Some of Israel’s Basic Laws and other pieces of legislation provide exclusive jurisdiction to religious law over family affairs, giving a pass to gender bias given how such laws often favor men, particularly in the realm of divorce and child custody. Israel has also arbitrarily revoked the citizenship of Palestinian Bedouin citizens, making women even more vulnerable to persecution.
Women’s freedoms are limited by these laws and practices, and efforts should be targeted at the level of the law, the labor market, education, political representation, health and cultural norms.
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