Women in Israel are better educated than the men but earn less, according to a comprehensive report the Israeli Women's Lobby (IWL) will present to the Knesset Monday.
"One of the most serious findings that we glean from the data is that the [economic] growth which the government is so proud of has skipped over the female populace," IWL chair Rina Bar-Tal told Haaretz. "It is mostly men from the middle class and upward who get to enjoy the market's strength," she said.
The report claims myriad points of inequality between men and women in Israel: only 26% of the women are eligible for old-age pensions as opposed to 52% of the men; the average wage for women is only two thirds that for men; but women receive 65% of the National Health Insurance support stipends for the poor and 51% of the unemployment checks.
Almost 40% of employed women work only part time, twice the rate for men, but only 16% of them cite homemaking as the main reason for not working full-time. The average unemployment figure for women is 9.5%, compared to 8.5% for men. 
Women comprise 33% of the directors in government-owned companies 
In the IDF, too, there is discrimination against women, the report claims. Women make up only 1/3 of the conscripted army (tzva chova), 18% of the professional army (tzva keva), 10% of the lieutenant colonels and less than that in the higher ranks.
Women's political representation is down, according to the report: only 14% of the Knesset's members are women, and Israel is ranked 78th in the world in terms of women's parliamentary representation. They comprise 12% of councilors in local government, 23% of the media's news reporters and 23% of the interviewees on news and current events shows. They comprise 33% of the directors in government-owned companies and 15% of the directors in companies whose stock is on the stock exchange.
While, statistically, girls score better than boys on high school matriculation exams, boys are tested in more subjects and take more intensive courses and thus, the report admits, have better overall matriculation standing than girls. Girls' scores on psychometric tests are lower than boys' by 40 points on average. The Lobby says this is due to the fact that girls do not do well on multiple choice tests because they do not tend to guess when they are unsure of the right answer, and because boys do better at competitiveness and achievement-based situations.
Some of the lobby's findings may be explained by a recent poll that asked Israeli men and women about their attitudes towards work. Ninety (90) percent of men polled cited salary and social benefits as the main factor in choosing a workplace, while 52% of women cited comfortable working hours, closeness to home and the work staff as the main factors. Career was sited by 68% of men as the most important factor in working besides earning a living, while 54% of women said they wanted to get out and meet people, and only 25% were career oriented.
Regarding discrimination in the army - some talkback writers were quick to point out that Israeli men serve three years whereas women serve only two, that men are called up for annual reserve duty for at least 20 years and that men are sent into war zones to fight whereas women, as a rule, are not.