While Silicon Valley is just beginning to confront decades of sexism and discrimination, female founders in Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community say their segregated gender roles have an unintended benefit — encouraging growing ranks of women entrepreneurs.
In the haredi community, many women serve as the main caregivers and breadwinners while their husbands focus on Torah study. One result is that entrepreneurship is often a better way for Orthodox female founders to provide for their large families.
“We’re taught very early that our role as women is to be the breadwinner,” said Sari Roth, 40, chief executive officer of Bontact and a mother of seven. “That means we need to fight, not give up and do everything not to fail.”
Recruiting more ultra-Orthodox into a technology industry suffering from a lack of skilled workers has become a national objective in Israel, with various government bodies enlisted to meet national goals. One challenge is that many ultra-Orthodox seek work environments that allow them to maintain their strict religious lives.
High numbers of children among haredi women can be a barrier for senior roles in secular-run companies.
Avital Beck, 35, who has six children and a doctorate in molecular biology, co-founded her company MilkStrip so she could hold a challenging job and have flexible hours to spend time with her children.
“Because most senior jobs in the tech industry are so inflexible, it just made sense to found my own company,” Beck said.
Similarly, Tikva Schmidt, a software systems architect with 10 children, founded TIDE Technology, an outsourcing firm offering software architecture and development solutions, to provide high-level jobs for haredi women, while allowing them to raise their children.
In the data base of Kamatech, a venture backed by the U.S. government and private money that aims to get more ultra-Orthodox Jews into Israel’s technology industry, around 40 percent of the 1,100 entrepreneurs listed are women — up from just five in 2012.
“I speak at a lot of meet-ups and technology events, and the only time I looked around the room and saw as many women as men was at a Kamatech event,” said Adi Soffer Teeni, general manager of Facebook Inc. in Israel.
Despite the community support, being a member of the ultra-Orthodox community remains a barrier for those seeking to work or start companies in the secular bastion of technology, said Chedva Kleinhandler. Her start-up, Emerj, provides software that helps companies offer confidential mentoring to employees.
“I got push-back from the secular start-up world,” she said. “Being haredi is the primary hurdle — and it’s hard enough to be an entrepreneur and a woman.”
