Representation of Women in Elections for Local Authority Heads

From a historical perspective, the proportion of female heads of local authorities in Israel has been extremely low—essentially negligible throughout most decades. How does women’s representation in local authorities during the first two decades of the 21st century compare?

Barbivai running for Mayor in Tel Aviv. hoto by Avshalom Sassoni/FLASH90

From a historical perspective, the proportion of female heads of local authorities in Israel has been extremely low—essentially negligible throughout most decades. This proportion is also particularly low in comparison to the representation rates of women in the Knesset and the government, and to the progress made by other groups in local politics in Israel. The first woman who was elected head of a local authority in the country was Haika Grossman, who was head of the Ga’aton regional council (today part of the Mateh Asher regional council) from 1950 to 1951. The first woman elected head of a municipality was Hannah Levin, the mayor of Rishon Lezion between 1956 and 1960, who remained the only woman to serve in such a position until 1998. In that year, Miriam Feirburg was elected mayor of Netanya, and Yael German was elected mayor of Herzliya. From the establishment of the state through to 2000, only 17 women served as head of a local authority in Israel, most of them in local councils and regional councils. That is, for the first five decades of Israel’s existence, less than 1% of the elected heads of local authorities were women.

How does women’s representation in local authorities during the first two decades of the 21st century compare? It is worth considering that since 1978, local elections in Israel have involved voters selecting two ballots, one for the council and one for the local authority head, unlike the single-ballot method used in national elections. This means that a vote for the local authority head is a direct vote for a particular individual, whether man or woman, rather than for a list of candidates that may include differing proportions of men and women, new and old candidates, and so on. By contrast, voting for a list of candidates for the council is similar to the voting method in national elections, and in both cases the ranking of candidates on the list is of significance (the method used in the case of regional councils is slightly different).

Figure 1 shows that on average, women constituted around 2.5% of elected heads of local authorities over the first three elections held in the 21st century. In the most recent elections, held in 2018, this proportion rose to almost 6%. While the share of elected women doubled between 2013 and 2018, it remains low in comparison to other Western democracies. In absolute terms, following the last elections, only 14 of the 255 local authority heads were women. This includes the following authorities: Haifa, Netanya, Beit Shemesh, Ganei Tikva, Yehud-Monosson, Or Yehuda, Yeruham, Kadima-Zoran, Kfar Yona, Pardes Hanna-Karkur, Gezer, Emek Hefer, Drom Hasharon, and Yoav. To these we can add the head of the Tel Mond local council from 2020 onward.

The figure further shows that the rise in the proportion of elected female authority heads has been mirrored by a rise in the proportion of female candidates for the post. The considerable increase in the share of elected female authority heads between 2013 and 2018 occurred alongside a sizable increase in the share of female candidates, from 6.3% to 8.7%. According to candidate lists published ahead of the elections now scheduled for February 2024, women constituted 10.3% of the candidates for local authority head. Based on previous years, it can be assumed that this increase will also result in a rise in the proportion of female local authority heads. Another point worth noting is that in all the elections represented in the figure, the share of female candidates was higher than the share of female heads elected; that is, overall, female candidates have less chance of being elected than their male counterparts (without taking into account age, incumbency and other factors).

In Arab local authorities, the proportion of female candidates for the position of authority head was zero or close to zero for the period examined. Thus, it is worth examining the data just for Jewish local authorities (see figure 2), in which the results are some 40%–50% higher, though they remain low by international comparison. For example, in the 2018 elections, the proportion of female candidates rises from 8.7% in all local authorities to 13.2% in Jewish authorities, and the share of female elected heads rises from 5.6% in all local authorities to 8.3% in Jewish authorities. In the upcoming local elections, rescheduled for February 2024, women constitute around 17% of the candidates for authority head, a considerable increase relative to 2018.

The share of female candidates and elected female heads is higher in local authorities with a higher socioeconomic ranking (see figure 3). This association may be explained, first, by the fact that the lowest socioeconomic clusters contain almost all the Arab local authorities and all the Haredi local authorities. In these localities, the proportion of female candidates for authority head is close to zero, and the proportion of female candidates for the council is also lower than in Jewish authorities. Furthermore, in general, the economically stronger authorities have a higher proportion of residents who vote for center and left-wing parties, which is likely to affect the share of female candidates, both in terms of demand (among voters) and supply (of potential candidates). At the same time, it should be noted that the analysis presented here is based on a fairly small sample, and thus this explanation should be examined with caution. Indeed, as of the time of writing, some of the largest local authorities headed by women are in fact cities with a strong right-wing and traditional character, such as Netanya (socioeconomic cluster 6 in 2017) and Beit Shemesh (cluster 2), as well as the smaller local council of Yeruham (cluster 3, with a smaller population, but also tending toward right-wing and traditional).

Finally, figure 4 presents the proportion of local authorities in which there has been at least one female candidate for authority head and at least one woman elected to the post over the last four elections, between 2003 and 2018. It shows that a woman has been elected head in 10% of local authorities during this period (this figure does not include women who replaced a serving authority head mid-term without being elected). In addition, almost half of the local authorities have had at least one female candidate in at least one of the elections for head of authority over this period, even when Arab local authorities are included in the calculation.