On the eve of International Women’s Day to be observed on Friday, March 8, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics released data on the women’s population in the country, including education and the number of women who are professionally employed. Unfortunately, while Israeli women are doing much better than men in the rate of success and achievements in education, they still lag far behind men in fields such as high-tech, as well as in their average annual incomes.
At the end of 2023, there were 4,949,800 women in Israel, of whom approximately 31.3% were aged 0-17, approximately 54.8% were aged 18-64, and approximately 13.9% were aged 65 and over.
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Education
The data show that among schoolchildren in Israel, girls outdo boys in rates of success. The dropout rates from school among girls are lower than the rates among boys. Among twelfth-grade pupils, the percentage achievement in matriculation certificates among girls was also higher than among boys: In 2022, 75.2% compared with 65.9%, respectively.
Women also outnumber men in Israel’s institutions of higher education. In the school year 2022/23, the percentage of women among students overall was 60.3%. The percentage of women among students in the Open University was 52.6%, in universities – 55.1%, in the academic colleges – 60.4%, and in the colleges of education – 78.7%.
During 2014-2022, on average, 1,158 women researchers, Israeli and foreign citizens, who hold a third degree (PhD), participated each year in post-doctorate research. The academic fields of research in which the percentage of women in postdoctoral research was higher than men were: Medicine, Paramedical studies, and Biological sciences.
Technology and Science
However, in 2023 only 151,000 women were employed in Hi-tech, as compared with 290,000 men. Women comprised just 34.3% of the persons employed in Hi-tech.
Employment and Wages
(The rates are low because the vast majority of Israel’s ultra-orthodox population are not employed full-time.)
The overall employment rate in full-time professional positions of women was 58.3%, compared with 65.4% among men. Of the employed women, 67.7% usually worked full-time (35 hours or more per week) and 32.3% usually worked part-time (less than 35 hours per week). In 2023, 199,000 women in Israel worked as self-employed, which was 9.5% of all employed women.
The proportion of women managers out of all managers in 2023 was 30.7%. The proportion of employed women among academic professionals was 55.8%.
In 2015-2021, the gender wage gap has decreased by 2.2 percentage points, and the gap between self-employed men and women increased by 4.5 percentage points.
Of employed women, 90% were satisfied with their work (similar to the percentage of men), and 55% were satisfied with their income (70% of men). 65% of employed women reported that they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their work-life balance.
Marital Status and Health
In 2023, approximately 1.20 million women (35%) are mothers of children up to the age of 17, of these, 90% live with their spouse and the rest head lone-parent families, similar to the previous year.
Health.
Life expectancy in 2022 in Israel was 84.8 years among women and 80.7 among men. Women are expected to live 79.7% of their lives without health problems that impair functioning, and men are expected to live 83.1% of their lives without such problems.
