The businesses owned by the survey participants are mostly very small businesses, and most do not employ additional workers. These businesses tend to operate in fields such as grooming and cosmetics, food and cooking, personal coaching and training, design and art, and education and teaching. These fields rely heavily on direct contact with customers and in-person activity, making them especially vulnerable during periods of crisis and activity restrictions.

The study’s findings indicate that during crisis periods, most business owners experienced significant damage to their business activity and income. Between 60% and 70% of respondents reported a decline in business income during the crisis periods examined, and in many cases business activity was also temporarily halted. Alongside the economic damage, many of the women described feelings of ongoing uncertainty, difficulty planning ahead, and psychological burnout stemming from the need to combine business management with family responsibilities during emergencies.

The study also indicates that some business owners managed to develop various adaptation strategies to cope with the damage to business activity. Among other things, it emerged that some women moved to online activity, adapted their products or services to new needs, or reached out to additional target audiences. However, only about half of business owners managed to make adaptations of this kind, partly due to a shortage of financial resources, professional knowledge, or appropriate business support.

A further finding of the study is that access to government assistance during crisis periods was limited for a significant portion of business owners. About 42%–43% of women whose businesses were harmed during the COVID-19 crisis or during the October 7th war did not apply for a government grant, or wanted to apply but did not know how. In addition, some women who did apply for a grant did not actually receive assistance. These figures point to a gap between government assistance tools and the ability of very small business owners to make use of them.

The study indicates that small businesses owned by women operate within a particularly vulnerable economic framework in times of crisis. A combination of the characteristics of micro-businesses, structural gender gaps, and assistance policy that is not fully suited to very small businesses increases the vulnerability of women business owners during emergencies.

Given the contribution of these businesses to household livelihoods and to the economic resilience of communities, it is important to develop public policy that recognizes their unique characteristics and provides tailored responses. Strengthening assistance mechanisms, improving access to information, and better adapting support tools to very small businesses may contribute to business owners’ ability to cope with future crises and to strengthening Israel’s economic and social resilience.

Based on the study’s findings, several key recommendations for public policy are proposed:

• Systematic collection and publication of data on small businesses in Israel, broken down by gender;
• Establishment of a fast and simple-to-operate compensation mechanism for small business owners in times of crisis;
• Adapting eligibility conditions for government grants to businesses with low turnover that do not employ workers;
• Expanding assistance mechanisms for training and support in online commerce and digital marketing;
• Developing frameworks for business networking and strengthening cooperation among small business owners.

הפוסט Self-Employed Women Facing Crisis הופיע לראשונה ב-Adva Center.

Even before the war, per-capita civilian spending in Israel was low compared with that of other developed countries; that is, public services operate under a persistent shortage of resources and personnel. Since the outbreak of the war with Hamas, public spending has expanded, but most of the increase was directed to emergency response, evacuation, compensation, and initial rehabilitation — not to strengthening broad, universal, and stable public services. In other words, even as the public budget grew, it did not strengthen the civilian base but served largely as a response to the state of emergency. The social price of the war is therefore not measured only in defense spending or war damage, but also in the gap between society’s needs and the ability of weakened civilian systems to provide an adequate response in the fields of housing, education, welfare, and health.

It is not only the war economy and the needs of security, emergency response, and initial rehabilitation that push civilian services down the budgetary priority list. Compounding this is a government that repeatedly chooses to make across-the-board cuts to these services, while at the same time budgeting for sectoral and contested goals: benefits for the ultra-Orthodox sector and the allocation of significant budgets to expanding the settlement enterprise, alongside across-the-board cuts to the budgets of government ministries generally and especially deep cuts to budgets earmarked for Arab society. This is a  policy resting on short-term coalition considerations, and its result is an ongoing erosion of the principle of universality of the welfare state.

Within this reality, the struggle against inequality cannot be postponed to the day after the war. The data presented in this report show that households entered this period from very different starting points: some rely on stable income, home ownership, savings, and capital income; others depend mainly on monthly wages, contend with a high cost of living and heavy rent costs, live in or near poverty, or were hurt by evacuation, reserve-duty call-ups, or damage to employment or a small business. These gaps also reflect differences between population groups and regions. Thus, Arab society in Israel, which suffers from persistent gaps in income, investment, infrastructure, and local development, is now also exposed to a public climate of hostility and suspicion that makes it harder to advance a policy of civic equality. In such a situation, inequality is not merely background data — it is one of the factors shaping the depth of the harm of war and the ability to recover from it.

Gaps in starting points are not only about current income from work. In times of crisis, home ownership, savings, and capital income serve as an economic safety net, while households that depend mainly on monthly wages are more exposed to loss of income, the growing cost of living, and unexpected expenses. Israel’s inequality is therefore not limited to wage gaps — it is also tied to the concentration of assets and capital income. This concentration is especially pronounced at the top of the income distribution: according to State Revenue Administration data, 82% of capital income is held by the top income decile, and 58% of it by the top income percentile alone. At this end of the distribution, capital is not merely an additional income source but a central mechanism for accumulating economic power.

This report seeks to return to the center of public discourse a question that has been pushed to the margins: how can a society cope with an ongoing crisis and recover from it without deepening the gaps within it? The data presented in the report indicate that an emergency response is not enough. Israel’s ability to cope also depends on its civilian base: on stable public services, broad economic security, and a policy that does not leave most of the burden on households. This is not a question that can be postponed to the day after the hostilities — it is a question that requires an answer here and now.

הפוסט Israel: A Social Report 2026 הופיע לראשונה ב-Adva Center.

An infographic presentation based on a study by the Adva Center in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation on gender pay gaps in Israel.

הפוסט Why Is Women’s Pay Lower Than Men’s? Infographic Presentation הופיע לראשונה ב-Adva Center.

At a shindig organized by the Adva Center for the 80th birthday of an Adva Center co-founder (yours truly) a few years ago, Professor Shoshana Madmoni, who in the early 1990s helped to develop Adva, a new organization on the Israeli non-profit scene, presented me with a framed copy of the first brochure of lectures and workshops offered by Adva to high schools, colleges, central and local governmental bodies and non-profit organizations. These events emphasized equality between Israel’s social groups.

Some 25 years later, Adva is still working for greater equality, through research, advocacy, and yes, outreach events for similar, as well as different publics.

In the first six months of 2025, these outreach events centered mainly on gender mainstreaming public policy making and budgeting, poverty and inequality in various areas of life and in different parts of the country, and the design and implementation of the national budget.

Regarding gender mainstreaming, it was the Adva Center that brought and taught the theory and practice to the country — from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the U.S. and Australia – adapting it to local needs and conditions.

In recent months, Adva was to be found spreading the good word in three Arab localities: Tur’an, Shfaram and Beit Jann. To take one example, Tur’an is a low-income village of 15,000 residents, 80% of whom are Muslim and 20% Christian, located in the lower Galilee, on the road to Tiberias. The Adva event, implemented in cooperation with the Tur’an local authority and the non-profit organizations Itach-Maaki and Shatil, was attended by senior local officials; its purpose was to encourage gender mainstreaming in the work of the local government of Tur’an.

The study day featured Dr. Yael Hasson, executive director of Adva Center and an expert on gender issues, as the lead speaker. The response to the event was overwhelmingly positive, and one of the issues discussed was how to answer women’s need for public transportation.

And how can I not mention the infamous October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. And then the infamous Israel-Hamas war, which most Israelis hope is really, really over.

After which hopefully, despite all odds, equality within Israeli society can once again take front and center.

Best wishes,

Barbara Swirski

הפוסט Adva Advocates for Equality Everywhere הופיע לראשונה ב-Adva Center.

This guide is written at a time of a prolonged war in Israel. This war broke out after a year of struggles over the essence of Israeli democracy, and following the COVID-19 pandemic. The implications of these three crises on the role of women in Israeli society and the economy are gradually becoming clear, and with them, the threat to women’s rights. Alongside these implications, we can also identify opportunities for the construction of a democratic and just society, in which gender equality serves as a cornerstone.

Using test cases from Israel and worldwide, we illustrate how gender lens philanthropy can lead to significant and sustainable change. These cases highlight the huge potential of this approach – from realizing values of equality and justice to creating a broad socioeconomic impact and maximizing the effectiveness of grants.

Based among other things on research undertaken to identify challenges and opportunities for the adoption of a gendered perspective in philanthropy, the guide provides knowledge on gender gaps in a variety of social fields in Israel: health, employment, welfare, education, personal safety, civil and family status, the environment, sports, and culture. For each field, we present major challenges as well as action items for philanthropy that can reduce gaps and promote equality.

The guide offers a wide variety of directions for action, from support for dedicated programs for women to incorporating gendered thinking in existing philanthropic work. Quantitative and qualitative data, combined with the analysis of inspiring cases, offers a solid basis for immediate action leading to significant change. This guide also includes practical tools that will help you start or deepen your gender-oriented activism. We believe that gender lens philanthropy is not only the right way, but also the smart way of attaining sustainable influence.

JFN is here to guide funders and foundations in applying the principles of this guide, to facilitate connections with funders and foundations already active in the field, and to provide personalized guidance to deepen your knowledge and implement gender strategies in your philanthropic work.

We invite you to join us on a journey for social change where every action can lead to transformation.

הפוסט Gender Lens Philanthropy: The Complete Guide to Promote Gender Equity through Strategic Philanthropy הופיע לראשונה ב-Adva Center.

For women who experience domestic violence, the absence of accessible, suitable alternative housing leaves them with only two choices:  to remain at home, where they continue to suffer from violence or to become homeless. In other words, for many, escaping violence means the loss of housing.

In April 2024, the Adva Center, together with the Forum for Public Housing and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, presented a position paper to the Knesset Committee for the Advancement of Women entitled, “Expanding Housing Assistance Mechanisms for Women Survivor of Violence and their Children”. The paper demonstrated how the absence of alternative housing gave abused women and their children no choice but to remain in dangerous home environments.

The fact that in Israel, domestic violence does not constitute a criterion for eligibility for social housing means that the only option for abused women is to receive housing assistance for rent from the Ministry of Construction and Housing. This assistance is predicated on having spent time in a shelter for women survivors of domestic violence, which means that women who could not find a place in a shelter or whose husbands received a court order to stay away from the family home but did not honor it were not eligible. In addition, financial assistance from the Ministry is available for no more than three years. The first year of assistance is awarded without many strings attached, but subsequent years involve presenting proof that the potential recipient is devoid of housing options. According to information supplied to the Knesset Center for Information and Research by the Ministry, if the woman and her husband are joint owners of an apartment in which the husband resides, whose value has yet to be divided between the spouses, the woman’s eligibility for housing assistance will be renewed.

According to a report published by the OECD in 2023, most countries provide survivors of violence with emergency shelter for a short period; however, in most countries, the demand is greater than the supply. The same report indicates that some states provide transitional housing for longer periods than in Israel. For example, in Hungary, there are transitional apartments located close to centers for the treatment of domestic violence that offer housing for up to five years. Figures published in 2019 indicate that the average stay in those apartments is two years, after which the women rent on the private market or receive social housing.

Some OECD member states, among them Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Japan and Australia, give precedence to survivors of domestic violence when it comes to eligibility for social housing. This policy could be adopted by Israel as well.

הפוסט Housing Opportunities for Women Survivors of Domestic Violence in Israel and in OECD Member States הופיע לראשונה ב-Adva Center.

In Israel, although it appeared that the negative effects of an earlier crisis on women, the Corona epidemic, were known, the October 2023 war revealed that there was still a lot to learn, reflected in the failure to identify women’s needs in various areas of life, as well as in the lack of suitable responses. Thus, the present war has caused a widening of gender gaps, among others with regard to decision-making, employment, the increased difficulty of balancing salaried work and care work for family members, physical and mental health, and the prevalence of family violence.

The aim of the present study is to examine the gender aspects of the October 2023 “Iron Swords” war that followed the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, in view of international research on the unique gender effects of crises and emergencies on women, with reference to the gender effects of another crisis – the Corona epidemic. Firstly, we will present a survey of the literature on the gender impacts of crises and emergency situations. Then, following a short description of our methodology, we will present findings regarding the negative effects of the October 2023 war on women in Israel, wherever possible, with reference to the Corona epidemic. In the last part of the study, we will present insights and directions for policy-making. This is the first study in a series in which we examine a number of central issues from a gender point of view: political representation and influence, employment, violence against women, women’s needs for social services, and the political silencing and persecution of Arab women in Israel. Due to the lack of data, and to the fact that we are still at war, the present study will not cover all the issues. In the future, we hope to examine additional areas of life, among them education and economic security.

Although we focus on the effects of the war on the lives of Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel, we are well aware that the present war has serious effects on the lives of Palestinian women living in Gaza and the West Bank, whose voices are neither heard nor reflected in Israeli dialogue vis-à-vis the war. We are also well aware, of course, that the war has horrendous effects on men.

הפוסט The October 2023 War: Impacts on Women in Israel הופיע לראשונה ב-Adva Center.

With regard to employment, the employment rate of Arab women in Israel at the primary work ages (25-64) have increased sharply since 2012, reaching a high of 46% in September 2023 — the eve of the war. The increase in the employment rate was true for all age groups and was the result, among others, of the implementation (if only partial) of the previous Five Year Plan and of policies supporting employment of Arab citizens (resilience centers, vocational training, day care centers, infrastructure development and more). In the first months of the war, the employment rate of Arab women dropped to 41% (November 2023). At the same time, the employment rate of Arab men decreased from 77% to 66%.[1]

According to the Bank of Israel, the decrease in the employment rate of Arab women in October was similar to that of Jewish women. A common factor for both groups was the closure of educational frameworks following the outbreak of war. Jewish women were absent from work due to additional circumstances — the mobilization of their husbands. In view of the fact that this was not a factor for Arab women, it might be expected that the decrease in their employment rate would be lower than that of Jewish women.[2] As we will see, the fear of Arab women of working in a mixed environment may also have been a factor in the employment rate decrease. Moreover, according to the Bank of Israel, during the months of November and December 2023, the employment of Jewish and Arab women recovered to a similar degree, placing both three percentage points below the rates prior to the war. The same report indicated that Arab men, who experienced a greater decrease in their employment, registered a slower recovery.[3]  At the same time, it is important to keep in mind that Arab women’s employment rate has been the lowest among  Israel’s social groups and that their average salary is also very low (NIS 6,099 a month on average in 2021, compared with NIS 8,670 among all women).[4]

In addition to a decrease in their employment rate, numerous Arab women reported working fewer hours. The tensions between Arab and Jewish communities in Israel had the effect of limiting employment opportunities even more, especially in mixed environments; thus the harm done to Arab women’s employment is also connected to feelings of insecurity: 40% of women working in mixed Jewish-Arab work environments reported a decrease in working hours, compared with 27% of women working in Arab environments.[5]

A survey conducted among Arab hi-tech engineers in December 2023 revealed feelings of insecurity at work and in public places during the war, as well as significant fear of expressing their opinions. Those feelings were more salient among women, who had more qualms about going to work (30% of women, compared with 16% of men) and speaking Arabic at the workplace ( 19% of women, compared with 13% of men). Likewise, more women than men were afraid to show their presence in Jewish or mixed spaces (38% compared with 30%).[6]

Arab women’s lack of personal security is also connected with the high incidence of crime and murder in Arab society, as well as state neglect in this regard. And one can add the ease with which guns are licensed, leading to greater dissemination of both legal and illegal arms and subsequently greater dangers to women at home and in public places. Between 2020 and 2022, 27 Arab women were killed by guns, most of them illegally held.[7]

Cutbacks in five year plans for Arab society, whose aims are to narrow gaps and develop Arab society, and the freezing of balance grants to low-income local local authorities, have had an adverse effect on Arab society, especially on social welfare programs and resilience centers whose purpose is to support young people at risk, along with elderly and female victims of violence. In addition, the budgets of government ministries were cut, including those that deal with health, social welfare and education, which need to deal with challenges unknown in the past. These services find it difficult to provide assistance under conditions of acute lacks of budgets and personnel. Arab women employed in these services are faced with additional challenges. Thus, for example, a report of the Ad’ar Association points to the fact that the shortage of Arab social workers, who work for low wages and under conditions of psychological stress in a period of violence and national tensions, is exacerbated by feelings of rejection by their Jewish colleagues, along with feelings of helplessness, fear and the avoidance of any talk about political matters.[8]

Stemming the ongoing harm done to Arab women and to Arab society in Israel in general requires concerted efforts, as well as the investment of resources on the part of the central government and the local authorities, in order to create safe and supportive  environments in which Arab women can thrive both socially and economically. Such efforts are vital in order to prevent further deterioration in the socio-econlmic status of Arab women and to promote their full integration into Israeli society.

הפוסט The Threat to the Economic and Personal Security of Arab Women Wrought by the War הופיע לראשונה ב-Adva Center.

We at Adva Center celebrate the publication of this official report that focuses on enhancing gender equality in local authorities; it constitutes no less than recognition of the importance of the issue for social resilience and democracy in Israel. It is no secret that the local authority is a central arena of decision-making: Local policies, priorities and resource allocation have a direct influence on the lives of residents. For this reason, implementation of the principle of gender equality into local governance is of decisive importance, as local governments are employers whose behavior affects local employees as well as being entities whose decisions and resource allocations have a direct impact on persons residing in the locality.

The findings of the report, based on an extensive, in-depth analysis, point to, among others, the need for local governments to create strategic plans to increase gender equality as well as annual and long-term work plans that include measurable outcomes, including the reduction of gender gaps in the appointment of senior officials and the determination of salaries, the strengthening of the position of gender equality advisor, among others by providing her with greater support and increased resources for her crucial work. Other elements of the recommended plans: improving data gathering processes in localities and promoting gender analysis of local budgets.

הפוסט A Feather in Adva’s Cap: State Comptroller Report on Promoting Gender Equality in Local Government הופיע לראשונה ב-Adva Center.

Studies show that only a minority of victims report the violence they experience. As a result, only partial official information about victims of violence is available to the authorities, representing just the tip of the iceberg.

Data from 2021 shows that tens of thousands of women victims of violence reported this to the police: 21,936 reported physical violence, 21,972 reported threats, and 5,444 women reported sexual crimes. In the same year, there were 13,106 patients in centers for the prevention and treatment of domestic violence, of which 66.2% were women, 11.4% were children and 22.5% were men. That year, 1,918 women, girls and boys stayed in shelters from domestic violence.

Women who are unable to get out of violent relationships and receive proper protection from the authorities pay with their lives: about 25 women in Israel have been murdered each year over the past several years, about half of them by their partners. Pro arming policymakers chose, unfortunately, to ignore this data.

Bringing firearms into the home may deepen patterns of violence against women, and certainly the sense of threat experienced by victims of domestic violence.

As much as the government has no intention of withdrawing from the dangerous policy of mass distribution of weapons, it should at least act to minimize the inherent danger. Therefore, it is necessary to act without delay to implement the recommendations of the 2019 Firearms License Procedure Audit Committee report (the Ronen Committee), and pay closer attention to the arguments put forward by women’s organizations and civil society organizations, led by the “Gun on the Kitchen Table” coalition.”

In order to minimize the expected harm to women, the national security policy with regard to the distribution of weapons must include, among other things: interfaces between the Ministry of Welfare and National Insurance and the Israel Police, the creation of supervision and control mechanisms that will include the obligation to install a safe, an in-depth examination of the consequences of the mass arming that will include collecting and publishing data systematically; revoking licenses issued in violation of the law and/or based on flawed procedures, a plan to collect weapons the day after the war, and implementing a policy of reducing the phenomenon of domestic violence.

הפוסט Sisterhood of Gun Violence: Women will Bear the Consequences of the Arming of the Israeli Civilian Population הופיע לראשונה ב-Adva Center.