Plan of action and status of execution

Guiding principles

Naming street names after a man, woman or group is usually based on an appreciation of past actions. Therefore, there are two main possible explanations for the gender unfairness in street names:

A. There was no awareness of the importance of gender fairness in the public space

B. Women were considered less worthy of appreciation than men

In most sectors, organizations and groups in Israel, the concept of women equal in value and contribution to men is continuously developing. Therefore, the project is about promoting awareness and taking effective actions to achieve gender fairness.

Seemingly, gender fairness could be achieved by naming new streets after women, but even if every month a new street in each community was named after a woman, gender fairness would be achieved within at least 100 years.

Therefore, a gender fairness initiative in street names works to achieve gender fairness by converting gender-neutral street names (birds, streams, etc.) to female names , until a reasonable gender fairness is achieved.

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Internal preparation activity

1. Build a database as detailed as possible regarding the distribution of gender names in as many local authorities as possible, including characteristics of names.  Status - the mapping stated with the help of volunteers. To date, data from about 50 local authorities has been collected.

2. Construction of a database of names of women with categories and characteristics and an explanation of each one why it is worthy of appreciation and commemoration.  Status - Contact was made with the 'A Street of her Own' group, which has established an extensive and diverse database of names.

3. Establishment of an accompanying team.  Status - The accompanying team began operations in August 2021.

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Activities with local authorities

• About 20 local authorities were contacted (in each case, all members of the council were contacted)

• Correspondence began with about 10 authorities, and meetings were held with 4 authorities

• The Kfar Saba City Council decided on October 6, 2021 that the Names Committee will hold an examination and discussion on the issue of converting generic [= gender-neutral] names to women's names.

• The municipality of Kfar Yona decided to name the industrial area under construction, and the streets in it - after women.

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Activities with authorities at the national level

1. Following the request of the initiative, the director general of the Federation of Local Authorities sent a letter to heads of all local authorities, with recommendations for addressing the issue. ​

2. Connecting to government and parliamentary bodies:

   • Knesset members were contacted, and three of them joined the project as partners.

   • A request was made to the office of a minister in the government, following which a meeting was held with an employee of the ministry, but at this stage the ministry did not return with an answer regarding cooperation and is not interested in publishing its name.