What's the Commission for Women in Jewish Leadership all about?

A snapshot of the Jewish community last summer revealed that women comprise only a fifth of all trustees (of Jewish Leadership Council member organisations), a quarter of chief executives and a quarter of members of the elected Body, the Board of Deputies. British Jewish women are high educational and professional achievers: the 2001 Census demonstrated that in the top occupational categories, Jewish women matched and in most cases proportionally out-performed men in the general population. However, the Jewish community is failing to benefit from their skills and expertise at a leadership level, where women are significantly under-represented.

The Commission on Women in Jewish Leadership (CWJL) - an initiative of the JLC- was set up to strengthen the community by addressing this gender imbalance in Jewish communal leadership.

There is an urgent need to make the community stronger and more efficient by engaging more women at the highest levels. Indeed, research demonstrates that organisations with gender-balanced leadership are more effective

Consequently, the Commission is conducting a community-wide consultation to assess the impact of the gender imbalance in communal leadership and to develop and refine interventions to address the issues. Women and men across the Jewish community – of all affiliations, backgrounds and levels of engagement - are being asked to contribute their views through a combination of interviews, surveys, discussions and open events. Crucially, all our communal organisations are also being invited to contribute and engage with the process.

The outcome will be concrete proposals for change which will initially be delivered in the form of a report back to the JLC– a chance to improve the situation now and for future generations.

Please give a few minutes of your time to support this important work by:

1) contributing your views through a short survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/CommissionOnWomeninJewishLeadership
2) forwarding this (item/link) to your friends and sharing it on social networking sites
3) making a donation to the work of the Commission at http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/CommissionOnWomeninJewishLeadership