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Women in Israel

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Israeli law prohibits discrimination based on gender in matters such as employment and wages, and provides for class-action lawsuits. However, in tandem, wage disparities between men and women remain an issue in parts of the state. In a 2012 survey of 59 developed countries, Israel ranked 11th for participation of women in the workplace. In the same survey, Israel was ranked 24th for the proportion of women serving in executive positions of power.

Women's rights

Even before the State of Israel was created, there were female residents fighting for women's rights in the British Mandate. An example of this is the women in the New Yishuv. Yishuv is the term referring to the body of Jewish residents in Palestine before the establishment of the state of Israel, and New Yishuv refers to those who began building homes outside the Old City walls of Jerusalem in the 1860s. In 1919 the first nationwide women's party in the New Yishuv (the Union of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights in Eretz Israel) was created, and Rosa Welt-Straus, who had immigrated there that year, was appointed its leader, as which she continued until her death. One of the members of the union was Ada Geller, the first female accountant in Eretz Israel. In 1926 the Haredim, who preferred not to face the possibility of a plebiscite, left the Yishuv's Assembly of Representatives, and that year an official declaration was made (ratified by the mandate government in 1927) confirming "equal rights to women in all aspects of life in the Yishuv - civil, political, and economic."

Israel was the third country in the world to be led by a female prime minister, Golda Meir (1969-1974), and in 2010, women's parliamentary representation in Israel was 18 percent, which is above the Arab world's average of 6 percent and equals that of the U.S. Congress. Still, it trails far behind the Scandinavian countries' 40 percent average.

The Israeli parliament, The Knesset, has established “The Committee on the Status of Women,” to address women’s rights. The stated objectives of this committee are to prevent discrimination, combat violence against women, and promote equality in politics, lifecycle events and education. In 1998, the Knesset passed a law for "Prevention of Sexual Harassment".

In 2013, the Minister of Religious Affairs and Chief Rabbis issued statements telling ritual bath attendants only to inspect women who want inspection, putting an end to forced inspections of women at mikvehs.

In 2018, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was in Israel to accept the Genesis Lifetime Achievement award. She lamented the segregation of women in Israel at public universities, likening the practice to discriminatory "separate but equal" laws once applied to African Americans in the United States.

In 2022, Zulat, an institution for equality and human rights, passes bill that assist the gender equality goal. For example, an amendment to integrate gender equality principles into all Knesset legislation. Another Amendment was a ban on gender based reunification discrimination of Palestinian citizens in Israel.

In the 2022-23 years a bill was passed that disenfranchised the Authority for the Advancement of the Status of Women. The bill was disenfranchised on term that stated that the authority had not done an adequate job at securing equality for women. The power was transferred to the Minister for the Advancement of the Status of Women, who claimed they would bring true equality for women in Israel.

In 2023, a law was proposed to help protect women from domestic abuse. These laws would allow previous domestic abuse victims access to electric wristbands that would monitor them. The wristbands would detect if the wearer was being attacked and alert the authorities. This law was majorly to help stop repeat offenders from committing domestic abuse and ultimately lower the rate of the crime all together.

In 2023, Judial Reforms proposed laws that would severely limit the power of the Supreme Court. Part of the judicial reforms was Reasonableness, meaning that the Supreme Court will intervene when they find that government rulings are extremely unreasonable. The unreasonable clause allows the supreme court to overturn policies infringing on women's rights. For example, it was ruled in religions service ministers favor where he refused the appointment of woman as a member of the Yerucham Religious Council because of religious reasons. The High Court undid the ruling due to it being an unreasonable outcome.

In 2023, The Women, Peace and Security Index ranked Israel as the 80th safest country in the world for women.

In 2024, The Knesset set a 30 out of 150 Woman quota for Chief Rabbinate Election Committee.

In 2024-25, a bill was to allow graduate courses to integrate gender segregation into schools in religious areas.

In 2025, High court of justice ruled that women were unfairly represented in the count of ministry director-generals. Where only 2 of 29 directory-generals were female. The high court of justice enforced the hiring of more Female directory-generals to infuse equality and fair representation.

Crimes against women

Rape, including spousal rape, is a felony in Israel, punishable by 16 years in prison. The Israeli Supreme Court affirmed that marital rape is a crime in a 1980 decision, citing law based on the Talmud (at least 6th century). The law doubles the penalty if the perpetrator assaults or rapes a relative. There are nine rape crisis centers that operate a 24-hour crisis line for victims to sexual violence. The Israeli Ministry of Social Affairs operates a battered women's shelter and an abuse reporting hotline. The police operates a call center to inform victims about their cases. Women's organizations provided counseling, crisis intervention, legal assistance, and shelters.

The indictment and conviction of former president Moshe Katsav for two counts of rape and other charges was interpreted as a victory for women. Rape crisis centers received record number of calls following the verdict.

Sexual harassment

Sexual harassment is illegal but remains widespread. The law requires that suspected victims be informed of their right to assistance. Penalties for sexual harassment depend on the severity of the act and whether blackmail is involved; range from two to nine years' imprisonment.

The 1998 Israeli Sexual Harassment Law interprets sexual harassment broadly, and prohibits the behavior as a discriminatory practice, a restriction of liberty, an offence to human dignity, a violation of every person's right to elementary respect, and an infringement of the right to privacy. Additionally, the law prohibits intimidation or retaliation that accommodates sexual harassment. Intimidation or retaliation thus related to sexual harassment are defined by the law as "prejudicial treatment".

According to a survey by the Ministry of Industry published in 2010, 35 to 40 percent of women reported experiencing sexual harassment at work, one-third of whom experienced it in the previous 12 months. Among the women who reported harassment, 69 percent said they had received "proposals," 47 percent reported comments of a sexual nature, 22 percent cited physical violation, 10 percent reported humiliation, and 7.7 percent reported extortion and threats.

Israel, in accordance with Western ethics, has made polygamy illegal. Provisions were instituted to allow for existing polygamous families immigrating from countries where the practice was legal.

Public harassment

Vigilante "modesty patrols" have harassed women perceived as immodestly dressed in Haredi neighborhoods. In 2010, police arrested two Haredi men at the Western Wall plaza on suspicion that they threw chairs at a Women of the Wall group that was praying aloud at the site. On September 28, 2010, the Israeli Supreme Court outlawed public gender segregation in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood in response to a petition submitted after extremist Haredi men physically and verbally assaulted women for walking on a designated men's only road.

Gender segregation and discrimination in public spaces

In 2013, Israel's attorney general, Yehuda Weinstein, advised ministers across the government to end gender segregation in public spaces. If implemented, the guidelines would change many aspects of daily life in Israel, where gender segregation is allowed on buses, at funerals, in health care and on radio airwaves. The attorney general's guidelines, however, are non-binding.

In Orthodox Judaism, there are certain situations in which gender separation is practiced for religious and social reasons, with strict rules on mingling of men and women. Before they were banned in 2011, Mehadrin bus lines operated along routes with large Haredi populations, with seats in the front reserved for men passengers. In 2006, Miriam Shear, an American Jewish woman, claims she was attacked by ultra-Orthodox men after refusing to move to the back of the bus on a non-segregated line. Critics likened the “mehadrin” lines to racial segregation in the United States, with Shear compared to African American icon Rosa Parks. In July 2004, American-Israeli novelist Naomi Ragen claims she was bullied for refusing to move to the back of the bus.

In 2014, The Forward noted that gender segregation has been a tradition in Israel and is actually on the rise, with gender segregated elevators being introduced in some places. In parts of Jerusalem where ultra-Orthodox live, advertisements and billboard do not have pictures of women, and some supermarkets have different hours for men to shop than women. Some clinics also have separate hours for men and women.

Similar problems with gender segregation have surfaced on airlines such as El Al, where ultra-Orthodox male passengers have pressured females to move, and planes have been delayed as a result. The New York Times interviewed Anat Hoffman on the phenomenon of ultra-Orthodox males asking female passengers on airlines to move, noting that IRAC had started a campaign urging Israeli women not to give up their seats. “I have a hundred stories,” said Hoffman.

Controversy has also been created by discrimination against women in public spaces. Women of the Wall have fought for the right of women to pray in their fashion at the Western Wall, including wearing prayer shawls, singing and conducting priestly blessings by daughters of the priestly caste. Women have also been denied the right to sing at some public events, such as memorial services and in the Knesset. The controversy focuses on whether "forbidding women to sing is an insulting act of unacceptable discrimination, or a gesture of sensitivity and consideration to Orthodox Jewish men who believe that listening to a woman’s singing voice is, for them, a violation of religious law. " Some believe such policies endorse religious fundamentalism and silence women or restrict their freedom in the public arena.

In 2016, women protested that they had been discriminated against in Holocaust Remembrance Day observance. Bar-Ilan University, for example, announced it would allow women to read passages of text and play musical instruments at its Holocaust Remembrance Day, but would bar women from singing in order not to offend Orthodox Jewish males. The city of Sderot also limited women's singing at public events to appease religious males. Other organizations, such as Ne’emanei Torah V’Avodah (NTA), protested that it is an Israeli custom to sing at national ceremonies and that extreme Jewish religious law should not be imposed on the general public.

In 2017, the Jerusalem Magistrates Court ruled that employees of airlines could not request female passengers change their seats just because men wish them to.

In 2026, based on a decision by the city’s rabbis, the Bnei Brak municipality proposed a plan to segregate two busy streets, Shlomo Hamelech and Ezra, by installing barriers and signs to separate men and women. City officials said the plan had been in the works for several years and might be expanded to other busy streets in the city. The municipality also urged residents to follow the new orders.

Marriage and divorce laws

Since the establishment of the state, Israeli law gives jurisdiction for matters of personal status for Jews, including marriage and divorce, to the rabbinical courts.

In 1947 David Ben-Gurion agreed that the authority in matters of marriage and divorce of persons registering as Jews would be invested in the hands of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, and an agreement was signed stating that (among other matters), known as the "status quo letter." In 1953 the Knesset enacted the Rabbinical Courts Jurisdiction (Marriage and Divorce) Law, 5713 – 1953. Section 1 of the Law states, "Matters of marriage and divorce of Jews in Israel, being citizens or residents of the State, shall be under the exclusive jurisdiction of the rabbinical courts." The substantive provision of section 2 of this Law further states: "Marriages and divorces of Jews shall be performed in Israel in accordance with Jewish religious law" (din torah).

In the rabbinical courts, which operate according to halakha (Torah law), a Jewish woman is allowed to initiate divorce proceedings, but her husband must give his consent to make the divorce final. If the husband disappears or refuses to grant the divorce, the wife is considered an "agunah" (lit. 'chained woman') and may not remarry or give birth to halakhically legitimate children. Rabbinical tribunals may, and sometimes do, sanction a husband who refused divorce, but still do not grant a divorce without his consent.

Christians in Israel may seek official separations or divorces only through the ecclesiastical courts of the denomination to which they belong. Gender discrimination in such courts is not so rigid or codified as under Sharia or orthodox rabbinical rules.

In 2010, Israel passed the Civil Union Law, allowing a few couples to marry and divorce civilly in Israel, with men and women enjoying equal rights The Civil Union Law extends this right to only the very small minority of couples in which neither person is registered as a member of any religion. A poll conducted by Tel Aviv University in 2009 revealed that 65% of the Jewish Israeli community supported the availability of civil, gender-neutral marriage, even though 70% of those polled expressed that a religious ceremony was still personally important for their own wedding.

In 2015 Tzohar (a Religious Zionist rabbinic organization in Israel), along with the Israeli Bar Association, introduced a prenuptial agreement meant to help ensure divorcing wives will receive a get; under the agreement the husband commits to paying a high sum of money daily to his spouse in the event of a separation.

In 2018 the Knesset passed a law, slated to remain in effect for three years, allowing Israel’s rabbinical courts to handle certain cases of Jewish women wishing to divorce their Jewish husbands, even if neither the wife nor the husband is an Israeli citizen.

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