Israel slips behind global average on women’s representation in parliament, Knesset committee hears

Israel ranks 97th out of 189 countries in women’s parliamentary representation, with only 31 women currently serving in the 120-member Knesset, according to data presented to the Knesset’s Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality ahead of the upcoming elections.

Twenty-nine women were initially elected to the 25th Knesset, accounting for 24% of lawmakers, while resignations and replacements have since raised that figure to 31, or 26% of the chamber. The global average stands at 27.5%.

Women’s representation in the Knesset has largely stagnated over the past decade. The Knesset reached a record high of 37 female lawmakers during its 2015-2019 term, but since then, the number has hovered at around 30.

“We will not give up. We won’t just hold the line – we will bring you a Knesset with a female majority in the liberal parties,” acting committee chair Yesh Atid MK Adi Azuz says.

Yisrael Beytenu MK Sharon Nir warns that women’s representation is stagnating or worsening, saying, “We’re seeing a trend line that, at best, is stuck, and at worst, as in the last Knesset, is moving backward.”

The committee also calls on parties to promote female candidates on their lists and urges authorities to step up efforts against the vandalizing of campaign posters featuring women after advocacy groups presented evidence of such incidents.

Neither of the Knesset’s two ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, fields female candidates on their lists.

The committee’s warning about the lack of female representation comes amid a broader debate over women’s place in Israeli public life.

Earlier this week, the Knesset Education Committee voted to advance a bill to expand gender segregation in academia to the Knesset plenum for its final two readings. The bill would allow universities and colleges to offer gender-segregated master’s and doctoral degree programs, subject to approval by the Council for Higher Education.

Education Committee member and Democrats MK Naama Lazimi condemned the “terrible bill,” saying lawmakers who oppose women serving in the Knesset or whose parties bar female candidates, including several of the committee members, “have no right to strip us of our freedoms and rights.”