No female director-generals appointed by new gov't for first time in decades

The government has yet to appoint a female director-general in any of its 29 ministries, Walla reported Sunday.

Earlier this month, the Israel Women’s Network sent a letter to the government, urging it to appoint more women to the position of director-general.

“Such a low representation of women among the directors-general of government ministries is a violation of the duty of adequate representation,” it said.

The government was set to appoint three male directors-general on Sunday, in the Agriculture Ministry, the Aliyah and Integration Ministry and the Diaspora Ministry, Walla reported. Two of the three men will be replacing women. In the Agriculture Ministry, Oren Lavia is set to replace Na’ama Pess Kaufman, and in the Aliyah and Integration Ministry, Avihai Kahana is set to replace Daganit Sankar, the report said.

In 23 out of 29 ministries, the role of director-general has already been filled, and with another three scheduled to be filled on Sunday, three slots remain for a potential female candidate.

Last month, the deputy attorney-general sent a letter to the new government ministers, cautioning them to give “adequate representation” to women in senior Civil Service roles and stressing that reasonable measures must be taken to find suitable candidates with qualifications that match the role.

Based on the recent appointments made by the new government, however, it would appear that her statement went unheeded.

The current government has the sharpest drop in female representation in senior government positions in more than 20 years, with the previous low recorded in 2001, when one woman was appointed to the position of director-general.

In the previous Bennett-Lapid government, nine women headed government offices, which was a record.

In response to the report that three new male directors-general were set to be appointed, Israel Women’s Network CEO Hadas Danieli Yelin said: “The faces of the appointments are the face of the government.”

It was “surprising” that this government had “just approved the appointment of Avi Simhon [as head of the National Economic Council], a person who claimed according to multiple testimonies that ‘women cannot be employed as managers,’ and that ‘women are less intelligent than men for evolutionary reasons,’” she said.

Yelin said she would continue to fight until “there is adequate representation for 51% of the population.”

Fighting for equality

Women in Israel feel that there is no one to represent them, she said, adding that “those who are around the table not only do not see them as equal, but see them as [less qualified].”

The Israel Women’s Network said it would join other women’s-rights groups in a protest on Sunday night against the harm that they believe the current government is doing to gender equality.

The protesters will be marching under the slogan “Wake up,” and they come from a broad spectrum of Israeli society, including haredi, secular and Arab women, according to the event’s organizers.

NA’AMAT-Movement of Working Women & Volunteers chairwoman Hagit Par, who is organizing the protest, said in a statement: “The legal changes proposed by the government mean potential harm to the long-standing struggle for gender equality. Behind all the lofty terminology is one simple truth: The Supreme Court, which is responsible for correcting many injustices, will lose its ability to grant relief to all Israeli citizens.”