Networking event empowers women in tech, celebrates female resilience

• Published date: 16 March 2024
• Author: ATARA BECK
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

She advised the audience – ranging from founders and CEOs to employees and job seekers, which included native Israelis and immigrants from several countries – on how to pursue their professional dreams, balance their careers with family life, and find time for themselves

Women in Tech® is more than just a global network; it's a social enterprise committed to Driving & Measuring IMPACT with a mission to bridge the gender gap and empower 5 million women and girls in STEM by 2030 to embrace technology through impactful actions in four core areas: Education, Business, Digital Inclusion, and Advocacy. Headquartered in Paris, Women in Tech® build skills and confidence, ensuring women are primed for success in the ever-evolving tech landscape.

The Tel Aviv event, supported and hosted by Point at Azrieli, was organized by WIT-Israel director Jenyfer Jerbi, who co-founded the Israeli branch in 2020, during COVID.

"They didn't have a chapter in Israel, so I saw an opportunity to forge something strong for women here to become more international," Jerbi, who hails from Montreal and was active in similar initiatives there, told the Magazine. "We're working to break the glass ceiling – not only in the tech sector.

"We have many amazing women on board, like Hilla Bakshi, the diamond of networking here," she said. Bakshi is the founder of HaMeetupistiot (a Hebrew play on the English word "meet-up," meaning "the women who meet up"), a Facebook group that promotes personal and professional development for women through informal programming and professional workshops.

Hexter-Alon, 41, has been in the IDF for 21 years, where she has implemented significant positive changes in the status of women in the army. "For those women who finished their service 20 years ago, we are not where we were then," she said.

The deputy gender adviser discussed some of the challenges she has faced since the age of 15, when she moved to a new city with her family, and how she has learned to overcome them. "All my life, I jumped from place to place, both before the army and during my service," she said.

"Whenever I noticed a position that I wanted to fill, I told myself that I must do it, no matter the price. I wanted it so badly that I couldn't see myself waking up in the morning and not fulfilling that role. I always went with what pulled me. Had I not fought for it, I never could have gone this far."

Advertisement

MARRIED WITH three children, Hexter-Alon became pregnant with her first child...