Crisis Management and Resilience Building Through the Women in Red Protest: The Handmaid's Tale Performances in Response to Israel's Judicial Overhaul

Abstract

This paper examines the resilience building and public crisis management led by the “Building an Alternative” feminine NGO in Israel during the 2023 mass demonstrations against the judicial overhaul. The proposed judicial overhaul was perceived as a threat to both democratic foundations and women's rights in Israel. Raising awareness of women's rights through the “Women in Red” (WIR) protest using the “Handmaid's Tale” Parades was instrumental in restraining the planned reform's potential negative outcomes. The study discusses the importance of identifying a potential threat and using a crisis management approach through public performances to address it. We investigated the nature of the protest activity to assess its effectiveness, from the public perspective, in building resilience and raising awareness of women's rights issues. These issues were examined by an online questionnaire (N = 185) addressing attitudes regarding the protest. The results of the study show an increased awareness and engagement with women's rights issues, which was attributed to WIR protest efforts. The use of prominent visuals in the WIR protest led by the organization directly contributed to its ability to build resilience for women's rights and to enhance understanding of the potential threats of judicial overhaul among the Israeli public. This study emphasizes propaganda's role in women's protests as a significant tool for building resilience. It also stretches the boundaries of crisis management models by revealing an integration of pre-crisis and response phases in the “Women in Red” protest.