Unique Women Program
Our club is the only framework in the Jerusalem metropolis providing football program for girls and woman. The program Includes 3 professional youth teams, 6 community based women teams and 20 girls teams within the Neighborhoods League.
Bridging the Gender Gap As with many other sports, Football is closely associated with males. This is true globally and even more so in Israel, a highly militarized and in many ways gender-segregated society – particularly in religious communities, both Jewish and Muslim. These views deter many women from participating in organized sports and discourage them from engaging in neighborhood athletic activities.
Those who succeed in overcoming such obstacles often risk being labeled 'unfeminine'. Such attitudes affect the way others perceive girls and women, but even more significantly, they also affect how they see themselves and their own possibilities. Hapoel Jerusalem aspires to break the stereotype associating Football (and sports in general) with men by bringing women's soccer to center stage, and giving any girl and women in Jerusalem the chance to play Football in a professional supportive setting.
Our women's soccer program is the only program for women’s soccer in the entire area of Jerusalem. Currently about 400 women and girls take part in the program, with interest and demand growing rapidly.
The program includes three departments: The competitive department is one of the best in Israel – the U19 team (named after Shira Banki, a young girl murdered in an attack on the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade in 2015) won an historic championship in the 2016/17 season, and 7 girls from the team were subsequently chosen to play at the Israel Football Association’s National Academy. The U14 and U11 teams are also thriving.
And the adult women's amateur league – now including teams from six neighborhoods – offers an organized framework for adult women to play Football. All in all, the success of our women's Football program sends a wonderful message to the city of Jerusalem in terms of normalizing participation of women in ‘non-traditional’ roles and breaking down social barriers.
