According to the gender index for 2023, the depth of inequality between women and men in the labor market reaches 40%.
This is due to the decrease in the representation of women in management positions in the public and private sectors, on the boards of government companies, in the senior faculty at universities, and more.
In addition, the index shows that since 2019 the gender gap in the average monthly salary has slowly increased, and the gender gap in the salary of employees in Israel is the second highest among the OECD countries.
However, in the high-tech industry, we see that the situation is a little different, and there is more willingness to integrate women.
According to a report by the Innovation Authority on the situation of women in high-tech, it appears that in 2023 there will be a 14% increase in the number of hires in the industry.
Also, many companies work in different ways to promote women and encourage women to enter the industry, whether through training programs, encouraging entrepreneurship, establishing dedicated groups or collaborations with various organizations.
We talked to some senior figures in companies that work every day to close the gender gap.
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Yael Eckstein, Stage One Fund./David Grab
At the venture capital fund StageOne, they established a program called Female Founder Office Hours about 3.5 years ago following the realization that in the technological world there are quite a few hi-tech hires but less female entrepreneurs.
This is a program for women entrepreneurs who wish to receive tips and professional advice from the perspective of investors.
To date, the fund has met with over 120 female entrepreneurs at various stages, before or after recruitment.
Yael Eckstein, the VP of Marketing at the Stagevan Foundation
, states that "empowering and promoting women in entrepreneurship is not only the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do.
In today's technological world and especially in Israel, there are quite a few women employed in high-tech of all shades of the spectrum, but there is a minority of entrepreneurs.
One of the insights that emerged as a result of the program is that there is a difference between men's and women's startups.
We see more female entrepreneurs dealing with "soft" areas of aid, and less with deep technology such as cyber and AI.
And to refine, some use AI technologies but not deep.
This shows the empathetic side in women, and this is expressed in their technologies, especially digital health, women's health, AD TECH technologies, children's education, mental health, digital medicine, lifestyle, wellness and sustainability, and of course this should also be reflected in the world of high-tech and entrepreneurship.
I think that Israel's success in high-tech and entrepreneurship in softer fields can greatly contribute to us as a country, and I truly believe that when we support and encourage women entrepreneurs, we not only utilize their potential but also drive innovation, economic growth and social progress."
Educating women for excellence
Odelia Rosenfeld/Rev
Salesforce, the global leader in CRM and cloud technology, places great emphasis on the issue of equality in society and gender equality in particular.
The company works to promote and equal opportunities among girls and women in the high-tech industry through a unique equality group for women under the name SWN (Salesforce Women Network), which takes care of the professional and personal development of Salesforce employees and building programs for personal and professional advancement for women inside and outside the company.
Also, as part of the company's ongoing learning program, Salesforce has built a program called Rise, a six-monthly learning and development program intended for the company's female employees who are not managers and want to direct their careers to a management career, in which they receive the tools and skills required for a managerial career path.
In addition, the company recently launched a professional promotion program for hi-tech workers on maternity leave in collaboration with the WOMAN2WOMAN organization from the 8200 Alumni Association and the Tel Aviv Municipality, which aims to promote women to key positions in the hi-tech world in Israel.
"Salesforce takes care of the progress and development of women at every stage of their journey. This, among other things, through special trainings, workshops, and favorable working conditions that allow them to develop a prosperous career."
says
Odalia Rosenfeld, director of social responsibility at Salesforce Israel and leader of SWN
.
"Beyond the internal organizational activities, we cooperate with leading bodies for the advancement of women to encourage more women at every stage of their lives, from high school, academic studies and even mothers to enter the high-tech worlds."
WIN-WIN
At HP indigo there is a unique community whose goal is to promote and empower women within the organization.
WIN or Women's Impact Network is a community within the organization that aims to promote and empower the company's employees and raise awareness of gender and social equality among all employees.
The community is run as an organization within an organization that is led by the fully volunteer employees with a unique structure of officials and the chairman of the organization, Hali Levy. Thanks to the community that was established in 2019, the company achieved significant results such as doubling the percentage of women in technological jobs, the percentage of women in the company as a whole.
The community produces platforms Organizations that allow female employees to develop in order to realize their full personal potential in the organization such as: expanding and promoting learning programs for women in technological positions, networking and connecting with other women's communities inside and outside the organization, promoting gender balance within the organization, developing unique mentoring programs, raising awareness of development opportunities and career planning , and creating personal development plans.
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Yonit Landoi, Vice President of Human Resources at HP indigo/Shira Shoali
Yonit Landoi, Vice President of Human Resources HP indigo
: "The WIN community was established with the aim of empowering the company's employees, with an understanding of their unique strengths and abilities, in addition to technological and professional skills. The community receives full support from the management and the activity for diversity and inclusion is at the core of what is done as part of the corporate culture And as a central resource for innovation that leads the company."
The story begins in kindergarten
At Incrediblebuild, a high-tech company in the software field, we encourage and work to promote women in technological positions and this is part of the daily life of the company.
In addition to the fact that at Incrediblebuild, about 75% of the management are women and headed by a CEO, Tami Mazal Shahar, the company works throughout the year to raise awareness of equal opportunities and even to do it in practice. One of the
things that stand out is the social work and volunteering activities that the company promotes around this issue, for example accompanying The Atid Plus association, which includes, among other things, accompanying and training girls in the periphery and exposing them to the technological professions, where Tami, the CEO, has been serving for the past 6 years as a mentor and board member of the association.
In addition, they make sure to have collaborations and projects with bodies that promote women, such as Women in Gaming Israel, the Mitafists and the women's community in high-tech, and more.
Also, as part of the company's policy to be female modeling in the TECH field, emphasis was placed on the issue of education with the thought and belief that equality begins already in the consciousness of the younger generation.
The company produced a series of children's books (Sophie's Crystal Ball, Sophie the Entrepreneur and Sophie and the Dream Lab) that were translated into a variety of languages and were designed to expose girls and boys from preschool age to the various high-tech professions.
The idea was born out of a goal to encourage girls to think differently about their future and to make the high-tech professions and technology accessible to them in an easy way, using rhymes and illustrations.
Ayelet Hamer Vice President of Human Resources at incredibuild/Haim Bergig
Ayelet Hamer, Vice President of Human Resources of Incrediblebuild
: "The female presence in the high-tech industry and also the managerial positions in which women can be integrated is an issue that is increasingly on the public agenda and also within the companies themselves.
We, the high-tech companies and those who stand at their head, have a great influence and the ability to produce diversity and inclusion not only within our company but also outside it, an action that will bring change in the present but also in shaping the future, and will affect the female presence we see in leading positions in the economy.
At Incrediblebuild, this issue is an integral part of the company's DNA, starting from the management structure where the majority is female, to the daily activities that accompany the company's activities - business and social."
the best for management
The Natural Intelligence Women Leadership Program of the high-tech company Natural Intelligence is a program in which senior managers of the organization accompany the company's employees with the aim of helping them in their career development, empowering them, and giving them tools for personal and professional progress and development.
Three rounds have been successfully completed and next March, on the occasion of International Women's Day, the fourth round of the program will be launched, in which dozens of natural intelligence workers have already taken part.
The program includes eight 1:1 personal mentoring sessions, and along with this, the mentors have a peer group for joint learning while maintaining full discretion of the women they accompany.
The couplings are made in a thorough thinking process that includes the topics on which the mentee (employee) wants to work, alongside the strengths, abilities and added value that each mentor can bring to the process from her professional experience.
Naa Chen, Natural Intelligence./Inbal Marmari
Naa Chen, Director of Diversity and Inclusion in the Human Resources Department at Natural Intelligence
: "In order to create change and promote gender equality, we have built a comprehensive program at Natural Intelligence that touches on the entire employee life cycle in the organization, from recruitment processes, learning, internal and external organizational communication to our actions The social. The "Naturality" mentoring program is an integral part of our organizational culture that speaks to gender. The program promotes and develops the company's women, encourages them to work with their strengths and strengthens their daily work. Thanks to the program and our extensive activity on the issue of gender equality, the percentage of female managers in the organization increased from 35% to 40 % in the last two years and the hand is still tilted. The program creates significant interpersonal and professional connections between women in the organization and works successfully for gender equality in an organization where there are 52% women."
More on the same topic:
gender equality
women
International Women's Day
High tech