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May 18, 2001
Monied women are different
Female philanthropists don't give in the same manner that men do.
PAT JOHNSON REPORTER
Women have traditionally been excluded from a participatory role
in Jewish religious expression. Like other women, Jewish women have
been excluded from most corridors of power. But they have exhibited
their communal power through acts of tzedakah - charity -
and a form of philanthropy, no matter how small.
That was the message brought to Vancouver last week by Susan Weidman
Schneider, editor of the Jewish, feminist magazine Lilith.
Schneider was in Canada to celebrate the inaugural event of the
Women's Endowment Fund, which operates under the auspices of the
Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Vancouver. The event was
held May 10.
Schneider, a Winnipeg native and American resident, shared her
experience of many years researching and reporting on the issue
of women's philanthropy. She told a celebratory, mostly female crowd
of 290 people packed into Temple Sholom that Jewish women have some
very specific differences in their manner of giving. Unlike men,
women tend not to want buildings named after them, she said.
"They do not fund bricks and mortar," said Schneider. "Women give
in order to make change."
Moreover, she said, women tend to prefer to give anonymously, whereas
men often give in a competitive way with business colleagues. Women
also tend to ask more questions about the causes to which they are
asked to contribute. And, many women are involved in the issue before
they donate, while men tend to begin their involvement with a cause
using their chequebooks.
Schneider shocked the audience with the statistic of Jewish women's
education levels compared with the general female population. Among
women under 45 in the general population, 12 per cent have college
degrees. Among Jewish women in the same age category, two-thirds
have degrees.
Schneider, responding to the obvious astonishment in the room,
quipped: "There's always someone in the room who says, 'Why so few?'
" Schneider, whose magazine does not shy away from controversy,
was upfront about the stereotypes surrounding Jewish traditions.
She said the emphasis on education and charitable giving are central
to the Jewish experience, citing the title of her speech - From
Pushkas to Powersuits: The Transformational Power of Women's Giving.
In old days, pushkas were the tin boxes like piggy banks, where
spare change went to be distributed to charity later. Women, who
were forbidden from serving as rabbis or from attaining higher religious
learning, could exercise a degree of power through the discretion
they had to distribute the pushka money. The Jewish National Fund
still uses its traditional blue pushkas as a fund-raising initiative.
Now, women whose grandmothers used to put shekels in the pushka
have a great deal more disposable income. Around North America,
according to Schneider, women are donating money, having an impact
on the world - and doing it differently from men.
Schneider did not shy away from redeeming erstwhile negative stereotypes,
calling for a resurrection of the yenta - traditionally assumed
to be a shtetl matchmaker but who is, in fact, so much more, according
to the editor.
"She's someone who has got a real bum rap," Schneider said of the
yenta stereotype. She may have been a busybody, her elbows on the
windowsill, paying attention to everybody else's business. But she
was the first on the scene when a neighbor needed a hand, said Schneider.
A yenta was an instrumental figure in the community who was one
of the few people to know who needed help with what. Contrary to
the negative opinions perpetrated about the yenta, Schneider said
she was what we would call today "a great networker."
Schneider's humorous and motivational presentation was greeted
with enthusiasm from the overflow crowd at the themed dessert meeting.
Though paper and plastic plates and cutlery were used (the foundation
prides itself on keeping expenses to a minimum), the accessories
gave the evening an air of whimsical luxury. Old purses were spraypainted,
turned into springtime flower boxes and used as centrepieces.
Prior to Schneider's address, the organizers of the fund celebrated
two milestones. When the fund was proposed more than two years ago,
they aimed to have a public launch event by May 2001, and to have
$200,000 in capital. The event went off without a hitch and the
women assented that they had pretty much met the second goal as
the account stood at $194,000 that day.
The event also recognized the recipients of the fund's first granting
round. (See the Bulletin's May 4 issue for details.) Helen
Coleman, a stalwart of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater
Vancouver and a founding mother of the Women's Endowment Fund, was
recognized for her years of contributions.
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