A women’s luncheon on Sept. 11 began with recalling the day the World Trade Center towers were struck in New York and concluded with vivid imagery about the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel.
Anat Sultan-Dadon, Israel Consul General to the Southeast United States since 2019, spoke about her role as one of few women diplomats to 50 attendees at the Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta event.
Sultan-Dadon has served in embassies of Israel in Cameroon, Germany, the Netherlands, and Australia, as well as positions in the Euro-Asia and the Asia-Pacific Divisions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem. The consul general is responsible for relations between Israel and seven southeastern states: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Israel has 108 missions around the world, 20 of those being headed by a woman. Equal representation in diplomacy mirrors other professions in which women are rarely at the top.
“We have come a long way, but we are not there yet,” she said. “This is not a process that we can count on just naturally evolving. It has to be intentional and measures need to be taken in order to ensure that women are able to participate.”
Sultan-Dadon stressed that while a supportive partner is important to being a female diplomat, the entire family is involved.
“It’s about how [the culture] perceives a man that is following the wife, versus how it perceives a wife following the husband. It is about the organizational culture: what it offers and what obstacles it removes and addresses because there are many obstacles for women,” she said.
Israel has a “macho” culture that is focused on security and the military, which she believes creates a barrier for women in many professions. It’s not just a feminist issue.
“If you look at diplomacy, if you look at national security, if you look at all of the decision making forums … when you don’t see women around the table, the decisions are not as good,” she told the audience.
Sultan-Dadon said in the wake of the Oct. 7 tragedy, hypocrisies were exposed about how Israel – and Israeli women – are treated differently across the world.
She said the violence of Oct. 7 exposed how the United Nations, international organizations, and women’s organizations, are “not really about women. They are not really about humanity. Because when it comes to Israeli or Jewish women it’s part of a more complex conversation.”
“All of a sudden it’s not so clear,” Sultan-Dadon said. “We can be confused about many things. There are many complicated issues in the world. Rape and murder are not in that category.”
Sultan-Dadon said Jewish people shouldn’t be providing legitimacy to anyone who is confused.
“Call them out,” she said.
