| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
For several decades Israeli feminism focused on law in its efforts to promote greater gender equality in Israel. The common wisdom was that legal reforms provide the most effective tools for undermining social structures of inequality and empowering women in the public sphere. Over the years this understanding motivated numerous legal battles that were aimed at using the law as an agent of gender equality. Starting in the 1980s various female litigants, aided by civil rights and feminist organizations, approached the Supreme Court as part of their efforts to remedy injustices of discrimination. For example, Leah Shakdiel, backed by ACRI, was a pioneer in the 1980s in securing women the right to equal membership in municipal rabbinical administrations; Neomi Nevo headed a feminist effort to amend retirement policies in Israel and eventually guaranteed women the right to retire at the same age as men; Alice Miller's efforts to become a military pilot a decade later initiated major legal reforms in military policies toward women that enabled them to serve in various combat roles.
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