When women are given a seat at the table, the results will be better for all

ITTAY FLESCHER meets YAEL YECHIELI, driving force behind the movement struggling for gender equality in Israel.

Yael Yechieli has been a feminist for many years, but after Israel’s election in November 2022, she knew that her activism needed to take the next step. Seeing the double calamity of Israel’s most right-wing government since its establishment come to power and the fact that only nine of the 64 coalition MKs were women, was of great concern to her.

On the day following the election, she formed a new organisation called Project 50:50. The initiative aims to achieve an equal 50-50 representation of women and men in all decision-making bodies, from the Knesset to local authorities and public NGOs.

Speaking to Plus61J from her home in Jerusalem, Yechieli explained that unlike some other feminists who seek to exclude men entirely from decision making, the 50:50 project emphasises the importance of partnership. “We oppose councils with only women just as we oppose councils with only men. The best outcomes happen when decision makers have representation from all the population, meaning a 50:50 split.” 

In between that election and today, Israel has experienced two major crises, and Yechieli attributes both in part to ignoring the voices of women. The first was the judicial overhaul, a plan to decimate the power of the courts largely designed by men that if implemented, would have dramatically expanded the power of Orthodox Rabbinic courts and weakened the rights of women across Israel.

The second was the October 7 attack, which was in part caused by male army generals routinely ignoring, dismissing and even threatening to punish several IDF junior female surveillance spotters who had been warning about the planned Hamas attack for several months.