Women’s empowerment

(This letter appears in The Jerusalem Post – 25 January.)

Sir, – It’s interesting how Tova Ben-Dov, the new president of WIZO, develops her argument for women’s lib (“Women should be driving the bus!,” Comment & Features, January 22).

She seems to view staying at home with small children as a punishment. Funny, that. I have always regarded it as a privilege.

More worryingly, this is yet another in a stream of recent Jerusalem Post articles stating that the root of a woman’s self-esteem lies in her ability to earn cold, hard cash. Apparently we are no longer the gentler sex.

A few months ago, we were informed that Arab women in the North need us to teach them how to become secretaries so they can be part of the emancipation. Then there was the support for the summer demonstrations, telling us that everything from formula to childcare needs should be cheaper to free up time for women to do more meaningful things. Now we have a suggestion that domestic violence is a result of women not earning their own salaries.

I would argue that the core of domestic violence has little to do with how a women spends the hours of 7 to 5. Quite simply, the issue lies with the man.

Rather than spewing out the old “equal rights for all” claptrap, how about helping women achieve the wonders of motherhood without making it compete with the workplace? Instead of cheaper childcare, how about better maternity pay, longer maternity leave, free breastfeeding support, health visitors such that they have in the UK, and some flex-time? As geographical descendants of the archetypal “Four Mothers,” why can’t Israel spearhead the path for the true empowerment of women? Why do we need to become part of the “male system?” As a great English literature teacher back in the UK once informed me, “Women who aspire to be like men lack ambition.”