With zero female directors-general and only five women ministers among 33 government ministries, women’s representation at the decision-making table in Israel’s government has reached an unprecedented low in recent years. But even beyond the top levels—in the workforce, at home and in culture—the path to gender equality remains long.
The Gender Index by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute’s Shavot Initiative, now in its 13th year, tracks a variety of indicators in education, employment and public leadership positions to provide a broad picture of gender dynamics in Israeli society.
“In the past three years, since the current government came to power, we’ve seen women excluded from the center of decision-making,” said Hadass Ben Eliyahu, director of the Yoda’at Center and one of the index’s editors. In her view, the bleak picture at the top trickles down to other areas as well.
The share of women on boards of public government-owned companies has dropped from near parity in 2015 (47%) to just 34% over the past year, even though the law requires fair and equal representation at these influential tables, where company policies affecting daily life are made.
In the public sector, including government offices, public hospitals and more, women are the clear majority. But in senior positions, from deputy director-general and above, the rate falls to 41%. That figure has remained unchanged for a decade. “The goal is to promote equality and reduce disparities,” said Ben Eliyahu. “That’s not happening.”
“The past few years demonstrate just how fragile the achievements in gender equality truly are,” the report’s editors concluded, warning that under the current government’s policies, women in Israel are being excluded from positions of political and economic power and influence. They recommend advancing legislation that mandates appropriate representation at all levels to correct the current imbalance.
Back to conservative patterns
In the workforce, the phenomenon of “pink-collar” jobs—positions dominated almost entirely by women—remains firmly in place. Gender segregation, in which certain professions are overwhelmingly male or female, has actually widened in recent years after a period of decline. “There used to be less segregation in employment, but the situation is getting worse,” said Ben Eliyahu. “We’ve returned to conservative views about where women ‘belong.’ The promise women are being told, that there’s mobility, isn’t being fulfilled.”
Over the past decade, many professions have remained largely female. About 84% of students in nursing and allied health fields, such as physical therapy and occupational therapy, are women, nearly the same as when tracking began more than ten years ago.
Women also account for 80% of the education and teaching workforce. In contrast, just 32% of students in mathematics and computer science are women, only a slight increase from 29% a decade ago, despite government and academic initiatives such as scholarships and mentorship programs designed to encourage women to enter these fields.
The motherhood penalty
One field that has seen a clear rise in women’s participation is medicine: the share of female medical students has climbed over the past decade from 55% to 62%. But the change has yet to fully reach the workplace, where women physicians still make up a minority, at 41%.
Channeling women into “female” professions, along with slower promotion rates and the fact that mothers are more likely than fathers to reduce their working hours, has a dramatic impact on pay. This is known as the “motherhood penalty,” and it has not disappeared. Despite significant wage growth over the past decade, the pay gap between men and women remains entrenched.
Average monthly pay for men now stands at about 17,800 shekels, compared with about 11,500 shekels for women—a gap of roughly 35%. While gender pay gaps are a global phenomenon, the situation in Israel is worse than the OECD average, where the gap stands at about 11%. Women also make up an overwhelming majority, 83%, of single heads of household and, accordingly, most people seeking assistance from municipal social services departments are women.
To address the situation and enable mothers to earn a decent living, steps must be taken to support working parents, including reducing the length of the workweek and introducing free education for children from birth to age 3, the report’s editors wrote. “All of these are essential measures to ensure the ability of women, and men, to earn a living and raise children with dignity.”