The Role of Local Authorities in Advancing Gender Equality in a Culturally Diverse Democracy; A Study of Minority Women in Israel

*ALSO SUBMITTED TO S04* The purpose of our study is to examine the ways in which local government impacts on gender inequality within diverse cultural communities. Focusing on two minority cultural communities in Israel – the Arab-Palestinian minority and the Jewish ultra-orthodox minority - we examine how these women perceive the role of the local authorities, and how they themselves define their own needs. We have two goals in our research. The first is to identify, and then examine the policies of local authorities that potentially impact gender equality; the second, is to study the perceptions of the minority women themselves as to how these local authority policies actually impact on gender inequality, along with their understanding of what the local authority should do to address gender inequality. Our study is informed by contemporary theories of intersectionality that examine the ways in which gender policy both impacts on and is influenced by race, ethnicity and other particularistic identities. By studying two local authorities from the Israeli Palestinian community, and two from the Jewish ultra-orthodox community, we examine, in a comparative framework, whether, and to what extent, local authority policy is informed by the different identities ethnic and religious identities of women, and how different groups of women perceive these policies. Through the use of both focus groups and interviews with women residents along with an analysis of existing policy instruments, we aim to explore whether women from different ethnic and identity groups have different needs in terms of local services and if so, whether the local authorities are aware of these differences. Our findings are thus relevant on both the level of theory and the level of policy.