It’s now clear that the March 2021 election in Israel is bad news for women’s representation in Israeli politics.

After a year when the coronavirus put the civic, health and economic crisis front and center and women leaders around the world like New Zealand’s prime minister rose to prominence, in Israel no woman stands at the head of any political party, large or small. Lists of candidates for the 24th Knesset must be submitted by Feb. 4, but as of now there is no party headed by a woman.

Every day new parties spring from divisions, especially on the center left, all of them led by men. On Jan. 2, former chief of staff Moshe Yaalon established a new party to vie for the center-left votes. He joins other men who broke off from larger parties such as Ofer Shelah, who also left Lapid’s Yesh Atid, a camp that historically put women center stage and was once led by Israel's only woman prime minister.

On the right among the ultra-Orthodox and on the left among the Arab parties, there’s nothing to speak of at all. The New Hope is led like all the others by a man, Gideon Saar, who left the Likud.