Israel has one of the highest gender wage gaps in the Western world, with full-time female workers earning on average 35 percent less than their male peers, according to 2017 figures made available by the Central Bureau of Statistics, down from 68 percent in 2016. And in the high-tech field, a main force in the Israeli economy and where the salaries are higher than average, the gap widens to 45 percent.

The most substantial factor for this disparity, according to the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel, is that women on average work fewer hours than men in part because they are still considered main caregivers for children and parents. Another key factor, according to the report, “is that women are more likely to be employed in lower-wage occupations and industries.”