No Women Speakers at Democracy Institute Conference

Woman in the academic world, including leading researchers in their fields, have bemoaned both the absence of women as speakers, and the fact that the subjects discussed failed to address women's issues despite the powerful and extensive influence Hebrew law has on the lives of women when it comes to matters of family, marriage and divorce.

Yesterday's conference discussed "the relationship between Hebrew law and the state law, secularism, religious Zionism and more," organizers of the event said.

"Once again you unabashedly allow yourselves to hold a full day of study without a single woman speaker," Ada Ravon, an attorney and research student at Tel Aviv University, wrote in a letter to the institute.

Prof. Frances Raday, from the School of Law at the College of Management Academic Studies, and coauthor and chief editor of "Women's Status in Law and Society in Israel," agrees that very few women are involved in the field of Hebrew law, primarily because the academic path usually begins with studies in a yeshiva. She does, however, reject a suggestion by the organizers of the seminar that this was the reason for the lack of women among the participants.

Her sentiments are echoed by women such as Dr. Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, an expert in family law at Bar-Ilan University's Rackman Center, and others involved in fields related to Hebrew law.

Some of the men who participated in the seminar "are not clear-cut Hebrew law scholars," Prof. Raday says, citing Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer, a leading jurist known primarily for his work in the fields of criminal and constitutional law. "Either I or Prof. Ruth Gavison could have spoken with Kremnitzer, or in his stead, about the constitutional issue. They didn't approach me," she adds.

The Caesarea Conference, also organized by the IDI, also saw a small number of women invited to participate - just 21 as opposed to 130 men. "They are building a world of scientific and public dialogue without women, and leading people to think that there really aren't any female researchers and scholars in these fields," charges Rabon.

IDI's president, Prof. Arie Carmon, adamantly rejects such charges. "We don't hold discussions on the basis of representation... There are very many fields in which on the professional side, there are few women," he commented.