Israeli women excluded from decision-making on coronavirus
Israeli women are excluded from the government’s decision-making process on the coronavirus, even though they are the first ones to suffer the social and economic consequences of the pandemic.
The government decided July 26 to reduce the coronavirus Cabinet — a small forum of ministers whose portfolios touch on the coronavirus outbreak — from 16 to 10 members. Two weeks later, on Aug. 10, the government decided to add members to this Cabinet again. The special forum now includes two of the ministers who had been excluded in July — Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman and Social Equality Minister Meirav Cohen. Thus, the change in number brought also another change: The coronavirus Cabinet now includes one female member.
Indeed, the July 26 decision raised quite a lot of anger from several opposition and coalition members, as none of the remaining 10 members were women. At the time, Cohen said, “There are no women in the [coronavirus] Cabinet; I’m not talking about me personally. I understand the desire for efficiency, but it makes no sense for there to be no women among 10 representatives.”
