The first event in 2012-2013 sessions (the fifth since it started about a year before) took place in November 2012, in Kfar Saba and was hosted by Yehuda Ben Chamo, the mayor and by Shelly Amramy, council’s member and head of the women’s council in Kfar Saba. Vered Swid, the head of the women’s affairs authority in the Prime Minister’s office, also attended the event. It was organized by Nessia Shtrasburg, the mayor’s council on women’s issues, and by a group of girls associated with the Young Women’s Parliament, headed by Rachel Levi-Hertz. About 100 girls, from Kfar Saba, Bat Yam, Faradis and Gisser A-Zarka, participated in the event.
Prof. Miri Baruch (literature researcher), gave a lecture on “how do princesses’ images influence on molding gender perceptions in girls and women?” Linoy Bar Geffen convened the discussion about the impact of children’s legends on shaping reality. The panelists were: Anya Bukshtein (actress), Tsipi Rahav (the legendary kinder garden’s teacher) and Smadar Shir (a writer and a journalist).
The main message that was conveyed in the discussions that took place in a workshop and in the plenary was that girls and boys grow up from the beginning of their lives with the ideas, representations, symbols and perceptions that construct and sustain the traditional stereotypes and role division. The use of legends made clear that a fundamental change is vitally needed in education, in parents’ and educators’ perceptions, in order that substantial social changes will emerge and grow new “princesses”, new heroines.