The second session of Young Women’s Parliament took place in November 2010 (as part of Sderot conference) in Sapir College. The event was moderated by Merav Michaeli (journalist). Hava Doron Superman (founder of 4girls) gave an opening talk, titled: Girls’ views on life. The speakers were school girls and young women: Noa Alfandari (gave a monologue: a poppet on a string); Ortal Oz (15, from Bat Yam); Nurit Agami (16 from Kfar Saba); Yael Bachar (18.5 from Kiriat Ono); Chawa El-Abid (19.5 from Beer Sheva); Ariel Kaminski (19.5 from Beer Sheva);
After a musical performance by Kol Hayam, a girls’ choir from Bat Yam, a panel of adult women with high positiions responded to the young women’s presentations. They were: Vered Swid, head of the women’s status authority in the Prime Minister’s office; MP Orit Zuaretz; Miriam Shecter, head of the department of gender equality in the Ministry of Education; Eti Binyamin, chair of the national parents’ leadership; Tzipi Nachshon Glick, director of the juvenile services in the Ministry of Welfare. Noam Peled (18, from the leadership school, a pre-military service) presented concluding remarks.
About 250 girls (and adult women) have arrived, many of them were from Bat Yam but also from all over the country. The young speakers described various empowering activities that take place in their schools or in informal frameworks to which they belong. They described some discriminating experiences they have in school for instance with regard to Sports. The girls complained that projects that are intended to promote gender equality are too rare. Girls who dropped from schools and are now active in the mentors’ project talked about the advantages that are missed by girls who are out of educational environment. A Bedouin girl talked about young Bedouin girls to complete their education and about teachers’ sexual harassment. Girls from 4girls web-site described the significant support and encouragement they gain from belonging to this web-site in terms of open and friendly space to express themselves and to find other girls facing similar difficulties. The adult women were moved by the presentations and admitted they-us fail to provide an effective support and role models for young women.