There are three main categories of senior roles in local government in Israel (beyond the head of the municipality): board members on municipal corporations, members of the city (municipal) council, and holders of high-evel appointed positions in the municipal government itself.
A statistical analysis of a representative sampling of municipalities in Israel reveals that even in cases where women are appointed as directors on the boards of municipal corporations, or to senior positions in city hall management, they are often relegated to roles in more "social" fields such as education and welfare. However, in more business oriented roles, such as city manager or city treasurer, women's representation is much lower.
Interestingly, when a municipality is larger than 100,000, on average the female representation in the city council is greater. Moreover, in more financially robust local authorities and in those closer to the center of Israel there a consistent and significant higher rate of female representation in local councils and among top official city positions.
Data also reinforces the assumption that women in the non-Jewish sector and in the ultra orthodox Jewish sector are discriminated against compared to men. In these local authorities, which usually rank on the lower end of the socio-economic scale, the number of women appointed to senior positions is close to zero.
In 2016 the Ministry of Interior decided upon the formation of a public commission on women's status in municipalities – for further reading click
here.