Campaigners ‘very disappointed’ over lack of women in JLC Downing Street delegation

In a statement today, the Women in Jewish Leadership group, which was originally set up by the JLC and is now supported by the Board of Deputies, said it was “once again very disappointed by the poor representation of women at this week’s JLC delegation to Downing Street. It is another illustration of the endemic issue of our community’s lack of women in leadership roles”.

It added: “Since our establishment two years ago, WJL has been working to address this challenging status quo which requires change both from women themselves and communal organisations.”

WJL co-chair Laura Marks said: “The meeting at Downing Street is the tip of the iceberg. Fundamentally we need to ensure that the diversity of our community is represented to government and to the outside world, as well as within our own community.

“We need to hear women’s voices, to acknowledge issues that matter to them, and also to recognise their contribution. All this will take further change in our structures, but also in our conventions.”

After overhearing his fellow JLC trustees speaking to Ms Doherty at the meeting, Community Security Trust chairman Gerald Ronson intervened, pointed out her correct identity, and said: “It’s terrible, there are never any women.”

Another visitor at the meeting, referring to the lack of women in the delegation, said: “It has always been like this. It’s how the community is and it will never change.”

Writing on Facebook, Ms Brady thanked the JLC for including her but said the lack of other women in the delegation highlighted the fact that “there is a problem”.

She said: “That problem is that our community is diverse and multifaceted. As some of the controversy that has come out tonight reflects, our delegation was not diverse and multifaceted enough to be truly representative.

“I don’t expect everyone to always know who I am. But it is undeniably a dire situation where the visibility of women in the eyes of some of our community’s senior leaders is so low that they have to guess if any woman happens to be the one they’re looking for.”

She added: “Calling for a more diverse representation isn’t about tokenism. That would imply that there are not brilliant and inspiring women leading our community who would represent our community to the Government in its entirety.”

She went on to list “Laura Marks, Karen Pollock, Gillian Meron, Alma Reisel, Naomi Dickson, Nicky Goldman, Rabbi Laura Janner Klausner, Hannah Weisfeld, and Dina Brawer” as just some of the “plenty” who are available.

She said: “Today was not the first meeting where I’ve been one of only one or two women present in a representative delegation. This post isn’t about this specific meeting, and it's not a criticism of any specific organisation.

“It’s about the status of women in our community. We deserve to be celebrated. We deserve to have our abilities recognised. But most of all, we deserve a voice and a face.”

A spokesman for the JLC said after the meeting: “The representatives of the JLC who attend the meeting with the Prime Minister are chosen as the most relevant members of the JLC to present on the particular issues we feel it is important to raise.

“Despite the fantastic work of the Commission on Women in Jewish Leadership, women are still under represented within the Jewish communal leadership.”

He added: “The JLC intends to continue its support for this project to ensure women are properly and appropriately represented at leadership level. We hope that this work will result in the gender gap closing within the Jewish community in the near future.”