Women's Affairs advisor

The Women's Affairs advisor to the Chief of Staff (Hebrew: יועצת הרמטכ״ל לענייני נשים‎, abbreviated to יוהל״ן Yohalan) is a female officer in the Israel Defense Forces that is in charge of promoting conditions that allow for the optimal use of the capabilities of women serving in the IDF; promoting equal opportunities for women during their military service; and assimilating women into military leadership positions. The position is currently being held by Brigadier-General Rachel Tevet-Weisel.

History

The Woman's Affairs advisor dates back to the Women's Corps that existed from 1949 to 2001. The corps was responsible for women soldiers, including: their absorption, recruit training, and transfers to IDF units. During their service, the WC provided them with various services through WC units attached to units in other corps. It also operated a women's soldiers-teachers unit, which taught new immigrants and developing regions.

Since the 1990s, the corps' authority began to gradually transfer into the regional commands and individual commanders, while the female soldiers-teachers unit was moved to the Education and Youth Corps. In 2001, the Defense Minister, Shaul Mofaz, announced the dismantling of the corps. Its command was replaced with a new Women's Affairs advisor to the Chief of Staff position. The corps' last commander was Brigadier General Suzy Yogev.

Women in Israel

Women in Israel have been officially guaranteed gender equality since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. This has enabled women to actively participate in all spheres of Israeli life. The Israeli Declaration of Independence states: “The State of Israel (…) will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.”

Israeli law prohibits discrimination based on gender in employment and wages, and provides for class action suits; nonetheless, there are complaints of significant wage disparities between men and women. In 2012, Israel ranked eleventh out of 59 developed nations for participation of women in the workplace. In the same survey, Israel was ranked 24th for the proportion of women serving in executive positions.

Women's rights

Even before the state of Israel was created, there were women fighting for women's rights in the land that became the state of Israel, for example women in the New Yishuv. Yishuv is the term referring to the body of Jewish residents in Palestine before the establishment of the state of Israel, and New Yishuv refers to those who began building homes outside the Old City walls of Jerusalem in the 1860s. In 1919 the first nationwide women's party in the New Yishuv (the Union of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights in Eretz Israel) was created, and Rosa Welt-Straus, who had immigrated there that year, was appointed its leader, as which she continued until her death. In 1926 the haredim, who preferred not to face the possibility of a plebiscite, left the yishuv's Assembly of Representatives, and that year an official declaration was made (ratified by the mandate government in 1927) confirming "equal rights to women in all aspects of life in the yishuv - civil, political, and economic."

Women's Corps

Women's Corps may refer to one of the following: