Women’s Day Israel
Women’s Right to Vote in Israel
May 15, (1948)
Number of female heads of state to date: 2
The right to vote for women in Israel was enshrined in the country’s Declaration of Independence, which stated that Israel would “ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or sex.” This commitment to equality laid the foundation for women’s suffrage and political participation.
In 1949, the first national elections were held in Israel, and women were granted full suffrage, allowing them to vote and stand for election on equal terms with men. Women have actively participated in the democratic process since then, casting their votes and contributing to shaping the political landscape of the country.
Over the years, women in Israel have made significant strides in political representation. Israel has seen women serve as members of parliament, government ministers, and even as the country’s prime minister. Notably, Golda Meir became Israel’s first and, to date, only female prime minister, serving from 1969 to 1974.
The Israeli government and civil society organizations have taken steps to promote gender equality and women’s political empowerment. Various initiatives have been implemented to increase women’s representation in politics, including the establishment of gender quotas for political party candidate lists. These quotas aim to ensure a more balanced representation of women in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.
Despite progress, challenges remain in achieving full gender equality in Israel. Women’s representation in politics still falls short of parity, and efforts continue to address gender disparities, enhance women’s political participation, and remove barriers to their advancement in public life.
The women’s right to vote in Israel represents a fundamental aspect of the country’s commitment to democracy, equality, and women’s empowerment. It symbolizes the recognition of women as equal citizens and highlights the importance of their active participation in shaping the nation’s future.
Uncourted and underrepresented, Israel’s female voters could decide election
By Haviv Rettig Gur
Mar 2, 2020 – Israelis were voting again Monday, just six days before International Women’s Day on March 8, in a race that many women’s rights advocates consider a step backward for women’s representation.
For the first time in 14 years, not a single political party with any realistic chance of making it into the Knesset is led by a woman.
And for the first time since women’s representation began to climb in 1999 — from a stable 6-10 percent of Israel’s parliament in the country’s first five decades to the 20th Knesset’s 2018 apex of 29% — that climb has stopped and even reversed.
> timesofisrael.com/uncourted-and-underrepresented-israels-female-voters-could-decide-election
Israel elections: who women vote for and how it’s shifting
By Einat Gedalya-Lavy
Sep 16, 2019 – Analyses of voting patterns in Western democracies found that in the 1950s and 1960s, women voted more conservatively than men and tended rightward – something that’s been called the “traditional gender gap”. But subsequently, this pattern became less clear and consistent. Starting in the 1980s in the US and in the 1990s in parts of Europe, women began to vote for left-wing parties more than men – what’s been called the “modern gender gap”. This shift has been attributed to changes in women’s employment and education, family structure and the permeation of feminist ideas in public debates.
In Israel, unlike most Western democracies, the common wisdom among researchers and political pundits was that there were no significant differences between the voting patterns of women and men. However, in the 2009 Knesset election, research I conducted with my colleagues Hanna Herzog and Michal Shamir, revealed a gender gap of 7%, where 28% of Jewish women versus 21% of Jewish men voted for the centre party Kadima, led by a female politician, Tzipi Livni.
This pattern held up even when considering the fact that women were more captivated by the security agenda and expressed more hawkish attitudes than men about increasing the defence budget, expressing consent to the establishment of a Palestinian state and evacuating settlements. These are views traditionally associated more with right-wing parties. In that election, Arab women also voted more than men for Balad – an Arab party, which had a woman candidate, Haneen Zoabi, with a realistic chance of making it to the Knesset – the first time an Arab party had done so.
In our follow-up studies, which analysed the gender gap in Israeli elections between 1969 to 2013, we documented a gradual transition from a traditional gender gap to a modern one in left-right political ideology and in voting. Since the mid-1990s a modern gender gap can be identified, similar to the trends found in other Western societies.
> theconversation.com/israel-elections-who-women-vote-for-and-how-its-shifting