Woman2Woman, Unit 8200 graduates mentorship program, launches 6th class
Women2Women was founded to promote women and advance women to key positions in the Israeli economy, and has thus far led five classes of their mentorship program.
By EVE YOUNG
Some 50 women were selected from around 1,000 applicants to take part in the Woman2Woman mentoring program run by the Unit 8200 military intelligence's alumni association, the organization announced this week. Among those accepted are women from Israel's Arab and ultra-Orthodox populations.The opening ceremony was held at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, and program mentors took a tour called "Women Creating Innovation" that was created just last week.Also on display at the ceremony were projects created by previous classes of participants.Women2Women was founded to promote women as well as to advance women to key positions in the Israeli economy, and has thus far led five classes of their mentorship program."We have the duty and the privilege as women who have reached key positions to pass the torch and allow women to pave the way for other women," said Peres Center Director-General Efrat Duvdevani.Israeli women are more driven (by 2.3% on average) than Israeli men to pursue business opportunities and gain independence and economic self-reliance, according to the 2020 Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs, which named Israel the best country in the world for female entrepreneurs.The report found that Israel, the top performing country, is "a prime example of gender-specific support mechanisms having swift and significant results." Israel was in fourth place in 2019, and its recent success was "driven by a focused institutional backing for SMEs" – Small and Medium-sized Enterprises – and a concerted effort to double the number of female entrepreneurs, said the report.In spite of promising statistics about women entrepreneurs, Israel ranked 30th out of 100 countries in the N26 Female Opportunity Index for 2021.The index looks at the advancement in equality and career opportunities for women in the 100 selected countries with comparable data, and focuses on political and corporate leadership, gender wage gaps, legal support, maternity leave and more.