Gender and Minority Mainstreaming of the Israeli National Budget"Report on Arab Women in Israel"

A "Report on Arab Women in Israel" focussing on the economic status of Arab women in Israel over the past decade was recently published in the framework of "The Gender and Minority Mainstreaming' project. The report focuses on mechanisms for reducing their poverty by enhancing their human capital (level of education), increasing their participation in the labour force, and improving their health. According to the report, these three spheres of activity, directly affect their economic status and opportunities for change. Current poverty figures on Arab society, in general, and women, in particular, are not encouraging. The incidence of poverty is much higher among the country’s Arab population than among the Jews; for instance half of Arab women live under the poverty line, compared with 12 percent of Jewish women.

The average income of Arab families is consistently lower than that of Jewish families, regardless of whether or not the woman works. Nevertheless, women’s participation in the labour force significantly diminishes the incidence of poverty in both populations and reduces the poverty gap between Arabs and Jews. A change in the economic status of Arab women requires improvement in their human capital (upgrading their education and areas of specialization) and better access to the central, modern labour market.

The report’s findings clearly show a steady increase in the level of education of Arab women over the past decade. The continuous increase in the level of education of Arab women has closed the gap between them and Arab men, and reduced the gap between them and Jewish women. The steady increase in level of education of Arab women has led, among other things, to a rise in the percentage of Arab women in the labour force by almost 8 percent, from 17.9 percent in 1998 to 26.4 percent in 2010. However, the higher participation in the labour force has occurred primarily among young women and educated women; the participation rate of older women and uneducated women has dropped.

In health matters, Arab women in Israel are more prone to sickness than men and Jewish women. The difference is clearly seen in numerous indicators, such as life expectancy, incidence of chronic illness, breast cancer and obesity. The life expectancy of Arab women is 81 years (the figure in 2010), compared with 83.7 for Jewish women. Among Arab women, 47.8 per 100,000 women die of heart disease, a figure twice as high as that for Jewish women and diabetes is the cause of death of 39.6 of Arab women, compared with 10.1 among Jewish women.

The Gender and Minority Mainstreaming project was devised to give a full and complete picture of the reality of Arab women in Israel through data on national government policies and Israeli budgetary allocations. Funded by the European Union's Investing in People Program, this project is a collaborative effort between the Galilee Society, Mada al-Carmel – the Arab Center for Applied Social Research and I'lam – Media Center for Arab Palestinians in Israel. The project focuses on the areas of Education, Labour and Health, since these issues greatly affect the poverty rate amongst minorities. The specific objective of the project is to create a national budget which adequately addresses the needs of gender and minority groups. This is a basic tool to promote equality between men and women as well as between Arabs and Jews in Israel. The Galilee Society expects the project to equip advocates for change in national and local budgets with the tools to effectively promote the interests of women and minorities.

For information on the project see: http://rikaz.gal-soc.org/?LanguageId=1&System=Item&MenuId=171&PMenuId=171&MenuTemplateId=1&CategoryId=140&ItemId=46&ItemTemplateId=1