The IWN was established in 1984 and is the most prominent women's rights organization in Israel. Our work is multi-faceted, including initiatives promoting women's rights legislation, providing legal representation, offering
educational programs, leading empowerment and leadership training, conducting policy
research, promoting enforcement mechanisms, and more.
Focusing on tools that create wide-reaching change, the IWN takes a pro-active role in advocating women's rights in the Knesset, providing pro-bono legal aid on precedent setting cases. IWN has submitted a number of bills to the Knesset and many of them have passed into law.
The IWN also functions on a grassroots level in activities ranging from a “hotline” that provides advice and services to women who have suffered discrimination to leadership
and educational programs.
Since 2013, IWN’s Equal Pay Project has worked to minimize gender wage gaps in the Israeli workforce.
IWN has introduced multiple amendments, including one
which prohibits abuse toward employees who seek
information on salaries for the purpose of equalizing pay,
and another which will substantially increase transparency of wage gaps in Israel, particularly in the public sector.
IWN worked to change the definition of “birth” in the Social Security Act so it includes stillbirths from 22 weeks of pregnancy. This ensures that women who undergo stillbirths will be entitled to the same rights as those who give birth at week 26 or onward, including maternity leave and protective labor laws. IWN also won compensation in two cases for women who were wrongfully terminated due to pregnancy.
The IWN submitted a case to the labor court on behalf of two female employees of the municipality of Jerusalem. The two women claimed they earned less than the men working beside them in similar positions. The court determined there were unjustifiable gaps in wages between the female and male employees, and the Court instructed the Municipality to submit an action plan to eliminate these wage gaps.