Women’s Leadership in Economic Change in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel

Overview

Arab-Israeli women are one of the most marginalised and invisible groups within Israeli society. Many have been adversely affected by the “Wisconsin Plan” a welfare-to-work programme introduced by the Israeli government in 2005, that Oxfam’s partner, Sawt el-Amel, has been active in opposing. In response to the hardship that the plan has brought to themselves and their families, women have become active in leading popular opposition to the Plan. This is a significant and unprecedented move in their conservative communities, where women’s presence in the public sphere has traditionally not been accepted.