Israel is usually described as a Western democracy. It is true in most areas, especially when the country is compared to its neighbors and the Middle East in general. Israeli democracy is vibrant and alive. It has a free press (even if it happens to be subject to attacks by the prime minister) and lively individual and human rights organizations. The political arena is in a state of constant turmoil, with parties rising and disintegrating. In fact, the Israeli electorate often surprises itself. Any time you have three Jews, you will always have four opinions at least. It’s a well-known phenomenon, so it should come as no surprise that this happens in Israeli politics too. All in all, what we have is a real celebration of democracy.

But there are also many areas where Israel cannot pride itself on having obtained such positives stats. The representation of women in positions of power is one area, where Israel’s democracy still lags noticeably behind the other democracies of the West. The nineteenth Knesset, voted in last January, has a record number of women. About a quarter of this new Knesset’s members are women, but that still represents only half of their proportion in the total population, less than the standard in the West. Furthermore, women are conspicuously absent from many other important fields. Few women serve in top administrative positions in Israel. The number of women serving on the boards of directors, as CEOs, or in senior positions in banking, industry, and other important sectors is significantly lower than the accepted norm. Israeli women are bold and assertive, talented and tenacious, but they still have a long way to go to achieve full equality, or even something resembling equality, in any position where they might have influence, authority, and power over men. 

The most blatant example of this disconcerting fact is the various governments of Israel. The percentage of women in Israel’s government has always been miniscule; sometimes it was downright insulting. The last Netanyahu cabinet, for example, had 31 ministers, of which only three were women. That’s less than 10 percent. It would be hard to go any lower than that. True, a woman named Golda Meir once served as the country’s prime minister, but she was described as being “more of a man” than all the men surrounding her. Furthermore, Meir became prime minister under extraordinary circumstances, which have never repeated themselves. The woman who came closest to repeating Golda’s great achievement was [HaTenua leader] Tzipi Livni, who made it to the finish line but was defeated by a combination of chauvinism and political constraints imposed on her.

Why is there such a glaring absence of women in the political arena? There are objective reasons for this. Israeli politics is macho, aggressive, and chauvinistic. It is bursting with libidos and sharp elbows. It is demanding too, and requires that an enormous amount of energy be invested in it, even if this means abandoning any semblance of private life or functional family. When taking this as a starting point, women are already faced with an especially onerous obstacle, especially since society still demands that women be responsible for the well-being of the family. Israeli politics is also infamous for its overabundance of wheeling and dealing, its questionable allegiances, and deals that are only semi-legal, if at all. Accounts of vote-buying, the use of voting “contractors,” and the elimination of political rivals are published here on a regular basis. To their credit, women tend less to engage in those kinds of shenanigans. Israel has not invented something new in this field. And yet, while other countries may also contend with aggressive, shady politics, they still have more women involved in politics.