Women Gain Record Seats in Knesset…

The results are in and a record was broken! After this year’s Israeli elections, 14 women now sit in the Knesset, five more women than in the previous parliament and two more than at the State’s founding.

Some stats: The average female Knesset member speaks three languages, is 52 years old, and has two children (plus professions and public service careers). A re-elected female Knesset member has chaired 1.8 committees and subcommittees and has served on 4.78 other committees (all of them have either chaired or served on the Committee on the Advancement of the Status of Women at some point).

For more information, visit the Israel Women’s Network at www.iwn.org.

The female Knesset members are:

Naomi Blumenthal
Likud, 56, Member of Knesset (MK) since 1992, founder of the Beer Sheva Theatre.

Naomi Chazan
Meretz, 53, MK since 1992, former head of the Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace.

Yael Dayan
One Israel, 60, MK since 1992, has written five novels (and is the daughter of Moshe Dayan).

Zehava Gal-On
Meretz, 43, first Knesset term, director of International Center for Peace in the Middle East.

Tamar Gozanski
Hadash, 59, MK since 1990, member of Israeli Communist Party Bureau.

Dalia Itzik
One Israel, 47, MK since 1992, former deputy mayor of Jerusalem.

Hosniya Jabarra
Meretz, 41, first Knesset term, first Arab woman to be elected to the parliament; organized leadership conference called “Women, Identities, and Peace,” which hosted 150 Arab and Jewish women from all over the Middle East.

Sofa Landver
One Israel, 50, MK since 1996, chair of the National Association of Russian Immigrants.

Limor Livnat
Likud, 49, MK since 1992, former Minister of Communications.

Tzippi Livni
Likud, 49, first Knesset term, former director of the Registrar of Government Corporations.

Anat Maor
Meretz, 54, MK since 1992, author of Women—the Rising Power.

Yehudit Naot
Shinui, 55, first Knesset term, two-time deputy mayor of Haifa.

Dalia Rabin-Pelosoff
Center Party, 49, first Knesset term, the daughter of the late prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, she has found a place for herself outside his Labor Party. Knesset agenda: education and the status of women.

Marina Solodkin
Yisrael Be-Aliyah, 47, MK since 1996, a Russian immgirant who has authored several books on Soviet Jewry in Israel.