Published: 6 September 2022
Last updated: 5 March 2024
Leading right-wing party pits women against one another as new survey shows almost two thirds of Israelis identify with the Right.
Women are radically underrepresented in Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party as Israel heads into another election.
Of the 20 politicians who head Likud's electoral list, only three are women. And of the top 10, only one, Miri Regev, is a woman. Women’s representation across the party is only 15%, a mere 10% higher than 30 years ago.
What has gone wrong is the miserly and improper use of the mechanism for reserving slots on the lists. Instead of being deployed as a temporary measure to help women advance (which they will no longer need after several rounds of elections), it has become the focus of bitter competition among women.
Women ranked in high slots compete against each other, on the assumption that this is what might ensure their appointment as the Likud’s sole (unfortunately) senior female minister in the next government.
In contrast, Labor and Meretz have equal or almost equal numbers of men and women candidates (not to mention the fact that women are at the helm of these parties), and even cases in which men have been pushed up the candidate list due to their underrepresentation, in accordance with predefined rules.
Likud is Israel’s largest party on the Right and goes into the elections with strong prospects, especially in the light of a new study which shows a growing number of Jewish Israelis who now identify as right-wing.
A survey of self-reported political affiliation published by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) found 62% of Israelis described themselves as right-wing on the eve of Israel’s November 1 national election, compared with 46% in April 2019.
The survey’s author Dr Or Anabi predicts that in the coming years right-wing parties would find it much easier to form a government without having to rely on support from the center or the Left.
