WOMAN

"I think women often get not so much an unfair deal as an illogical one. Once in the Cabinet we had to deal with the fact that there had been an outbreak of assaults on women at night. One minister (a member of an extreme religious party) suggested a curfew. Women should stay at home after dark. I said: `But it's the men who are attacking the women. If there's to be a curfew, let the men stay home, not the women.' "
- Golda Meir

Since its inception in 1948, the State of lsrael has guaranteed the civil rights of all its female citizens through a body of highly liberal, non-discriminatory legislation.

The reality of the Israeli woman's life, however, is shaped by the constant need for national defence, and by the pervasive struggle for economic independence. It is tempered in the compromise between religious and secular elements in public life and, like the State itself, is a unique mixture of paradox and progress.

The advances in women's rights during the last five decades have had the greatest effect on female immigrants from Asian and African countries. In a singe generation, many of them have leaped from a condition of feudal subjugation to one of active involvement in a modern society.

The younger the Israeli woman, the better are her chances of a university education. The proportion of women enrolled in institutions of higher learning has nearly tripled since the mid-'60s.

The average woman in Israel has served up to two years in the Israel Defence Forces; hers is the only country in the free world where compulsory military conscription applies to women as well as men. Although Orthodox Jewish women are not required to serve, many fulfil their defence obligations within special Nahal units which combine military duty with agricultural work in border settlements. Others elect to do voluntary service as teachers' aides, or as outpost nurses, and so on.

The position of Arab women is more difficult to generalize, depending strongly as it does on the family's economic standing and social tradition, and on the degree to which women's freedom has been circumscribed by religious dictates and community attitudes. By law, Arab women have full legal rights concerning education, ownership of property, and personal status, equal to all other women in the State of lsrael. But, in practice, the decisions which determine whether an Arab woman will be free to pursue an education, plan and embark on a career, own property, or even drive a car, have frequently been shaped by forces at work for decades before her birth.

The likelihood that the ``average'' Israeli woman will enter the work force, and stay in it, has increased steadily. The professional woman will encounter virtually no prejudice in advancing through the lower and middle ranks. But she may face problems reaching the very top.

Although concerned with equality, the Israeli woman has not adopted extreme measures to pursue that end. The more radical feminist programmes have not been seriously entertained by more than a small number here. However, the ultimate egalitarian aims of the movement have for decades been a central part of the programmes of several powerful women's organizations, which number among their members virtually every educational, social, and economic group in Israel.

Women who travel alone in Israel (and there are very many who do), should know a few things:
The only places where a woman will feel uncomfortable alone are some of the shadier night clubs in the large cities.

This is a Mediterranean country. The low whistle and muttered or even shouted comments are not uncommon, mainly from teenagers.

In the Arab centres (the Old City in Jerusalem, Acre, Nazareth, Bethlehem, Hebron, etc.) Moslem customs are severely chaste. The very way a Western woman dresses seems indecent to people who were used to women covering their faces in public. Scanty outfits may cause tragic misunderstandings.
It is not advisable to hitch-hike anywhere.