While gender gaps in sports have narrowed dramatically worldwide, Israel continues to lag behind. Despite increasing awareness of the issue in the Knesset, no steps have been taken to ameliorate the situation.
More stories:
A lack of facilities, insufficient state funding, and discriminatory criteria are just some of the factors keeping women out of sports fields in Israel.
5 View gallery
Medal-wining female Israeli athletes: Anastasia Gorbenko, Inbar Lanir, Linoy Ashram
(Photo: AP, AFP, Getty Images)
A report recently compiled by the Knesset Research and Information Center at the request of Yesh Atid lawmaker Simon Davidson, paints a gloomy picture of the gender gap in Israeli sports.
The report was issued as part of Israel's Sports and Physical Exercise Day, taking place in the Knesset Tuesday.
The report gathered data on Israeli female athletes in various categories, the representation of women in sports organizations and unions, the promotion of women in sports, and the policies implemented by the Culture and Sports Ministry to allocate more sports facilities for women.
"As of 2021, women make up only one-fifth of all athletes in Israel and a mere 4.1% of all soccer players," Davidson said. "These are just some of the shocking statistics presented in the report. As the father of three daughters, it's important to me that they grow up in a place where they can have the opportunity to do whatever they wish."
According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), which provided data for the study, in 2021 there were 119,709 active athletes in Israel ages 7 and above, of whom 25,829 were women, representing 21.6% of all athletes.
5 View gallery
Yesh Atid lawmaker Simon Davidson requested the report on female athletes in Israel
(Photo: Elad Guttman)
When divided by age groups, 9,518 of the female athletes were adults, or 22% of all adult athletes, and 16,311 were minors, or 21% of all young athletes. In terms of sports played, 14,943 female athletes participated in individual sports, or 36% of all athletes, and 10,886 participated in team sports, or 14% of all athletes.
The number of women in the top 15 sports categories stands at 18,403, representing 82% of active female athletes. While male athletes still top female athletes in many categories, some – like volleyball, athletics and swimming – boast similar numbers to men, and some limited categories like gymnastics and equestrian sports feature more women than men.
Steps are being taken to close the gaps but aren't being completed fast enough. Discussions held in Knesset committees in recent years raised concerns about the inequality in sports facilities given to women.
Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar responded to the report on Tuesday afternoon. "Promoting gender equality in sports is one of my most important tasks, both in the sporting arena and in the administrative arena," Zohar said in a statement. "Every girl, youth or woman at any competitive level should have the opportunity to excel and thrive in the sports arena. The year 2023 is a turning point for women's sports in Israel. This year we doubled the budgets of sports leagues and individual sports through Athena – the Center for the Promotion of Women's Sports, with the aim of increasing the number of girls and women participating in competitive sports."
The State Comptroller, in a report published last May, recommended that the Culture and Sports Ministry establish a monitoring system to ensure that local authorities fulfill their obligations to allocate facilities to women's organizations to better represent women in sports.
At the end of 2021, the ministry decided to establish a public committee to promote women's sports, which was supposed to publish its findings in 2022. No such report has yet been published.
5 View gallery
Israeli rhythmic gymnast Linoy Ashram won the Olympic gold medal for all-around competition
(Photo: Reuters)
In response to the inquiry from the Knesset Research and Information Center, the Culture and Sports Ministry provided a draft of the report.
The draft recommends establishing a national project to increase the number of young women and girls in preferred sports, increasing the number of female athletes in competitive sports via support exams for women, establishing independent women's departments in soccer and basketball associations, founding an authority to promote women's sports in Israel, and supporting women's sports in Israel through a nation-wide campaign.
The report added that the country needs to improve the status of female athletes and provide additional support through equal pay, helping female athletes during their military service, and promoting women in coaching and refereeing jobs.
The report also highlights that more female athletes are found in individual sports than in team sports, as evidenced by the 2023 Tokyo Olympic Games, where Linoy Ashram won the gold medal in rhythmic gymnastics and Avishag Semberg won bronze in taekwondo.
Arab Israeli female athletes account for only 10% of adult female athletes in the country and 12.7% of minor female athletes, a lower figure compared to their overall part of the population in Israel.
5 View gallery
Israeli competitive swimmer Anastasia Gorbenko is considered Israel's greatest swimmer of all time
(Photo: Hagai Michaeli)
A key tool for the ministry to promote women's sports is setting requirements for sports associations, federations, organizations and clubs in Israel. Among the requirements is a threshold of 30% female representation in the management of sports associations and federations in Israel.
Some 51 sports associations have met this requirement, and the overall percentage of women in the sports associations' management teams has increased from 28% in 2020 to 33% in 2021. This year, the ministry plans to implement a 10% reduction in its support of sports organizations that fall below these requirements.
The Culture and Sports Ministry's 2022 work plan aimed to increase the number of female heads of sports associations in the country to 13 from four
The ministry said in the report that the number of females heading sports associations grew from 4 to 16 in 2022, out of 65 currently active in the country. Since then, three of them have left, and the current number stands at 13.
5 View gallery
Israel's women's soccer team: More women in Israel play individual sports than team sports
(Photo: Getty Images)
Discussions held by Knesset committees in recent years revealed that, as of 2021, 95% of female athletes train on half a normal-sized field, and in most of the soccer fields they practice on there are no locker rooms present, some 60% of the fields, and there is no space to store equipment, some 75%.
The State Comptroller found that the Culture and Sports Ministry didn't do enough to provide equal opportunities for female soccer players of all ages to train and play on fields, and recommended rectifying the situation.