CBS report: Israeli women are more educated, live longer, but earn less
Women in Israel are making strides in education, but fall behind in wages and C-level representation.
By LIDAR GRAVÉ-LAZIUpdated: MARCH 7, 2017 04:40Male and Female gender symbols(photo credit: INGIMAGE)
Women in Israel live longer and are better educated than their male counterparts – but earn much less – according to a report on the socioeconomic status of Israeli women released by the Central Bureau of Statistics on Monday.The report comes just ahead of International Women’s Day, which is marked annually on March 8th.At the end of 2015 there were 3,102,500 women aged 15 and above living in Israel, according to the report. Their average life expectancy stood at 84.1 years, compared to 80.1 years for men.The report found those women are getting married at a later age and, in turn, having children at a later age.In 2014, 50,797 women got married. The average age for a newly married woman that year was 25 – an increase from 2004’s average of 24.5 years.By sector, the findings indicated the average age for marriage among Jewish and Christian brides stood at 25.9 and 25.8 years, respectively.The average age of Muslim and Druse brides was significantly lower, at 22.2 and 24.1 years, respectively.Some 173,800 women gave birth in 2015, with the mothers at an average age of 27.6 years, up from 26.5 years a decade ago.The average number of children per woman in the country stood at 3.09 – the highest in the OECD, which has an average of 1.7 children per woman, the report said.The CBS reported major salary gaps between men and women in the labor market.The findings indicated that 59.4% of women aged 15 and older had entered the workforce stood, compared to 69.1% of men.In 2016, the average monthly salary for a woman was NIS 7,666, while the number was significantly higher, NIS 11,219, for a man.The average monthly income for a self-employed woman stood at NIS 7,065, compared to NIS 12,399 for men.One of the main reasons behind the salary gap cited by the report was the number of hours men and women worked, with male employees working an average of 44.9 hours per week and female employees working an average of 36.7 hours.Taking this into account, the salary gap between employed men and women was reported at 15.1%.Only 56% of women are satisfied with their salaries, compared to 62% of men.The data further revealed that, of women who are employed, 68% worked fulltime jobs and 32% worked part-time, compared to 86.6% of men with full-time jobs and 13.1% working part-time.The report found that 75.4% of married mothers were in the workforce: 78.3% of mothers with one child; 79.5% of mothers with two children; and 63.7% of mothers with four or more children.In 2016, only 34.1% of executives were female.Gaps between men and women in the field of education were also included in the report.In 2015, 69% of 12th grade girls were eligible for a matriculation certificate compared to only 56% of boys.In the 2015/16 academic year there were some 314,400 students in Israel, of which 183,700 were women, accounting for 58.4% of the total.This is a significant increase from the 1969/70 academic year, in which women comprised only 43.3% of the total student body.