The large number of parties comprising the 18th Knesset—a total of twelve—guarantees that forming a new government in Israel will not be an easy task. Nonetheless, the new Knesset has already achieved a major accomplishment: a record number of female members. With 21 women—representing 17.5% of the parliament—there are twice as many female representatives as there were in the Knesset in the 1980s.
Seven of the 28 representatives of the Kadima Party are women; Likud and Israel Beiteinu's lists each include five women; and the Labor Party list has three. Hanin Zoabi, a representative of the Balad Party, is the first woman in Israeli history to represent an Arab party in the Knesset.
Figure 1: Women in the Knesset, 1949 - 2009
Compared to other democracies, Israel's female representation is considered ‘average’. Notwithstanding the impressive progress in the recent elections, Israel ranks 80th in a list of 170 countries—well behind Sweden, Holland, Argentina and Spain. In these countries, women comprise over one-third of the parliament. Israel's standing, however, is on par with the United States, France and the United Kingdom, where women comprise roughly one-fifth of the members of parliament.