(Adnkronos) – There are 33 female deputies out of 120 represented in the new Knesset. Never have there been so many women in the Israeli Parliament, but only 27.5% of the total number of deputies. An improvement compared to previous legislatures, therefore, but a percentage still far from reflecting the proportional share of women in the population. As Haaretz writes, in the last three Knesset legislatures, 29 or 30 women have been sworn in. The increase in female representation in the Knesset is attributable to the opposition parties to the interim Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, as emerges from an analysis by lawyer Anat Thon Ashkenazy and Assaf Shapira of the Israel Democracy Institute.
In Gadi Eisenkot’s bloc and in the Arab parties, 39% of Knesset members are women, compared to only 13% in Netanyahu’s bloc. It should be noted that Netanyahu’s bloc also includes the two ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, which by definition exclude women. Therefore, about 80% of current female parliamentarians come from the opposition. Eisenkot’s Yashar is the only party where women constitute the majority, while Together and Democrats have an equal number of men and women. In Likud, the largest party, only four women were elected out of 27 Knesset members.
“The increase in the number of women in the Knesset is positive news,” says Thon Ashkenazy, director of the Center for Democratic Values and Institutions at the Israel Democracy Institute. “Especially considering that since 2015 there has been no significant progress in female representation in the Knesset, while in other public spheres there has even been a decline in their presence,” she added. “Now it is crucial to ensure that this increase is also reflected in the appointment of women to key positions in the Knesset and, subsequently, in the government,” she stated.
According to an analysis by Haaretz, the new female Knesset members are younger and have served for less time than their male colleagues, with an average age of 51.1 years compared to 54.3 for men. “There is a greater number of women in the ‘change bloc’ parties. Of the 26 women elected from these parties, 17 were elected to the Knesset for the first time,” the report states. 55% of elected women enter the Knesset for the first time, compared to 33% of men. Furthermore, among the women elected to Parliament, only five, or 15%, had previously held a ministerial position, compared to 33 men, or 38% of all members of Parliament.
The Israel Democracy Institute analyzed the professional background of female parliamentarians. According to its analysis, the majority of women in the opposition bloc come from the third sector and education (nine out of 26, more than a third), followed by local authorities and public services. Public service is the only sector from which more women than men come among members of Parliament. Among deputies with a background in security services, the gap is particularly wide: two women versus nine men in the opposition bloc and one woman versus three men in Netanyahu’s bloc.
