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Women Playing Key Roles in Israeli Politics

Israeli women are shattering the glass ceiling of male-dominated politics in the Knesset and preparing for the upcoming municipal elections.
Labour party candidate Stav Shaffir poses on Rothschild Avenue in Tel Aviv, the site of a 2011 protest against high housing costs, December 5, 2012. The leaders of a grassroots social protest movement that swept Israel in 2011, one of them Shaffir, have shot to the top of a rejuvenated Labour party that polls say will at least double its power in a Jan. 22 general election that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud is forecast to win. Picture taken December 5, 2012.  REUTERS/Amir Cohen (ISRAE
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Thirty-seven women expect to run for mayor or head of local councils in municipal elections to be held on Oct. 22, while dozens more will try for council membership. If only a quarter of the contestants for the various positions will be elected, the results will still be considered a real revolution regarding the representation of women in local politics that is currently controlled by men.

Even according to pessimistic assessments, female representation in the local authorities will rise in the gamut of positions involved. But even now, the very fact that so many women are in the race points to a dramatic change on two levels: in the growing desire of women to influence the local arena and in the transformation of women into a sought-after brand in this arena, as part of the effect created by the social-justice protest movement in the summer of 2011.

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