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Even as Global Leader, Israeli Women Entrepreneurs ‘Not Even Close’ to Even Playing Field

Even as Global Leader, Israeli Women Entrepreneurs ‘Not Even Close’ to Even Playing Field

Hurdles remain as Israel graces top spot in annual Mastercard index ranking; most acknowledge some improvement over time

Israel secured the top spot in this year’s Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs, up three spots from last year, as the best nation for female entrepreneurs.

While some Israeli women in the sector feel that the distinction is well deserved, others feel that their experience on the ground is not commensurate with the ranking jump over the last 12 months.

Just how much progress Israeli female entrepreneurs have made is very much up for debate, although most acknowledge that there has been at least a gradual improvement over a longer period of time.

Israeli women are not a monolithic group. While the government has many initiatives to promote female entrepreneurship, such as providing more funding to female-led startups and even more for those initiated by minority women, the highest-ranking country for female entrepreneurs might not be the best for all Israeli women in the industry.

It’s not like [we can say] ‘Okay, we are there now, and it’s equal.’ It is still not ideal, it’s not 50/50 or even close to it

Netta Doron, a Tel Aviv-based LinkedIn specialist, says that even though Israel is in first place, women entrepreneurs still face more difficulties than men.

Netta Doron, LinkedIn specialist. (Elad Ackerman)

“As I experience it, in terms of LinkedIn and the entrepreneurship arena, it’s tougher for women. While I do have some women entrepreneur clients, I don’t meet a lot,” she told The Media Line. “I still feel the field is dominated by men.”

While Doron acknowledges she has seen some positive shifts over the last few years, including more conversations about including women and more female speakers at summits and conferences and general leaders overall, she says that the entrepreneurship scene is far from equitable between the genders.

“It’s not like [we can say] ‘Okay, we are there now, and it’s equal.’ It is still not ideal, it’s not 50/50 or even close to it,” Doron adds.

This shouldn’t be [only] a feminist agenda; it should be on Israel’s national agenda. The more female entrepreneurs we have, the better it is for society

Some of the discrepancies in opportunities come from how women and girls are socialized, she says.

“When women come to me, sometimes I feel they underestimate themselves…. It’s very typical for women, I see it less in men,” Doron says. “Women have to learn personal branding and how to put themselves in the center.”

The idea of having more women entrepreneurs is relatively new to the public sphere, and still needs to be pushed for, the LinkedIn specialist says. She adds, however, that the message should not only be delivered by women and the government needs to be doing more to make this happen.

“This shouldn’t be [only] a feminist agenda; it should be on Israel’s national agenda. The more female entrepreneurs we have, the better it is for society,” she says. “It’s a more diverse arena and women have other angles and strengths that men don’t have.”

Doron says the uneven playing field is not necessarily created out of malice by male colleagues.

“When I give lectures at webinars and mainly technological summits, I always tell the organizer I would appreciate if we saw more women there,” she adds. “I have to specifically ask, because sometimes I’m surrounded by only men, especially in the technological world.

“They’re not doing it because they’re against women; they just don’t think about it. It’s not on their agenda so I think we should strive to put it there. Once [that is] established, then they will find the women entrepreneurs and the women speakers and that would make a difference,” Doron says.

[The international community is recognizing] the results and great successes of Israeli women in many areas of the business world, which is only getting better. I hope this ranking provides us with more opportunities to prove we can succeed

Natalie Geffen-Zigel, CEO of the Yavne-based Geffen International, which consults for businesses on global trading, believes a lot of progress has been made, highlighting an increase in women in high tech and in leadership positions.

Natalie Geffen-Zigel, CEO and founder of Geffen International. (Amir Tsuk)

“[The international community is recognizing] the results and great successes of Israeli women in many areas of the business world, which is only getting better,” Geffen-Zigel told The Media Line. “I hope this ranking provides us with more opportunities to prove we can succeed.”

Israel rose to first in the Mastercard Index mostly due to national programs intended to draw twice as many women to the entrepreneurship sector as there are now, within 48 months.

As such, the country excelled in government support for small and medium-sized enterprises, one of the index’s 12 measures and 25 subset measures, including in “Supporting Entrepreneurial Conditions,” to determine the ranking of the nations. The index assesses each country’s score based on improvement, or decline, in comparison to its performance in 2019, and provides a grade based on the combined point total.

The startup nation narrowly bested last year’s winner, the United States, which was followed by Switzerland rounding out the top three spots in the 58-country survey.

I can see there is so much hope. Each time I go through Tira, an Arab town in Israel’s Triangle region, I see more boutiques, shops, libraries and educational expenditures created by women in my community

Dr. Dalia Fadila founded the Tira-based Q Schools: Education, Consultation & Development, a small English-language program, in 2007. It has since expanded into a pre-school-through-high school complete education program. She has also seen a lot of improvement over the last one to two years.

Dr. Dalia Fadila, founder of Q Schools: Education, Consultation & Development (Q Schools)

“I see more Arab women in my environment,” the Arab Israeli educational entrepreneur told The Media Line. “More women now have the courage and confidence to start their own institutions and become entrepreneurs.”

Fadila attributes this growth in entrepreneurship to changes within Arab society.

“[Women] know they have to rely on themselves. The patriarchal big family structure in the Arab community has been weakened, and individualism has started to emerge as a value,” she says. “Arab women have started seeing themselves as individuals who lead their own entrepreneurship projects.

“The role of money has changed from something belonging to the family to something that is a personal resource, empowering you and enabling you to be free,” she adds.

Fadila stresses, though, that there is a large opportunity gap between Jewish Israeli women and Arab Israelis, part of which is cultural.

‘The larger Jewish Israeli culture is more open-minded; women have a more prominent role… starting from having women in politics to women in high tech. The Arab community is still emerging from a conservative perspective on the role of women.”

However, she says that the opportunity gap is in large part due to Arab women not having the same resources as their Jewish counterparts.

“Most do not have transportation available outside their village; the majority of buses do not connect to employment centers in specific cities,” Fadila says. “Daycare isn’t always available for mothers who need to work.

“Women in Arab communities are struggling with so many obstacles just to get even entry-level employment, let alone become an entrepreneur at an advanced level,” she adds.

Despite these challenges, Fadila is optimistic about the future for Arab Israeli women entrepreneurs.

“I can see there is so much hope. Each time I go through Tira, an Arab town in Israel’s Triangle region, I see more boutiques, shops, libraries and educational expenditures created by women in my community. This is the impact that Q Schools has had on the community.”

I think we are far away from being first [in the world for female entrepreneurs]

Zada Haj, the founder of Daifco, an online platform that matches experts to media outlets seeking their expertise, has a different perspective.

Zada Haj, the founder of the startup Daifco (Oren Hacohen)

“I can’t say Israel is bad for entrepreneurs in general, so for sure it’s not bad for females, but… there are many resources that do not exist for women. I think we are far away from being first [in the world for female entrepreneurs],” she told The Media Line.

Haj, an Arab Israeli engineer, feminist and entrepreneur, also says there is not an even playing field between Jewish and Arab women entrepreneurs.

“The opportunities for Jewish women are not the same for Arab women,” she says. “We face additional hurdles being Arab.

“Yes, we are all women [and face obstacles as women], but an Arab woman is not the same as a Jewish woman, and an Orthodox women is not the same as a Druze woman,” she says.

There needs to be more efforts focused specifically on Arab female entrepreneurs to ameliorate the situation, Haj says.

“In my last [startup] accelerator program, there were only two females in the group,” she continues. “It’s not due to lack of talent, but lack of resources such as lectures and programs targeting Arab women. Our families and our society are not connected to the startup nation, so we always feel like outsiders.”

Haj says the inequity between the two groups is felt most in mentoring.

“There is no mentoring for Arab female entrepreneurs, and we don’t really have many role models. If you grow up seeing a lot of women engineers in high tech, then you feel like that is something you can achieve as well,” she says. “But when you only see men, you ask yourself and you start to question yourself and whether you belong.”

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