According to the polls, the next Knesset could include as many as 40 female legislators, based on the number of women in relatively high spots on the various Knesset lists.
Each party running for the Knesset compiles a list of 120 potential Knesset members. The number of representatives of each party who actually wind up serving in the Knesset is based on the percentage of the vote the party gets in a Knesset election. The minimum electoral threshold required to enter the Knesset is 3.25% of the vote, meaning that the fewest MKs a given party can have in the Knesset is four. If, for example, a party is projected to win 10 seats, those 10 seats go to the candidates in the first 10 places on the list. The 20th spot would be considered "unrealistic" and, barring a major upset, the candidate in that spot would not serve in the Knesset.
The Blue and White list includes nine women in "realistic" spots; the Likud seven; the New Right four; and Labor and Yisrael Beytenu each have three women in spots that could actually see them into the Knesset. The various Arab parties have four women in realistic spots on their lists; and Kulanu, Meretz, and the Union of Right-Wing Parties have two women each in realistic spots.
If the parties led by MK Orly Levy-Abekasis and Adina Bar-Shalom pass the minimum electoral threshold, there could be as many as 40 women in the next Knesset, which would be an all-time record. Moreover, if those two parties make it into the Knesset, there would be four female party heads: Levy-Abekasis, Bar-Shalom, Meretz Chairwoman Tamar Zandberg, and the New Right co-leader Ayelet Shaked.
The 19th Knesset (2013-2015) included 27 female MKs. The 20th Knesset, which is now dissolved, originally included 33 women. Two later additions pushed that number to 35.
