Women in Israel comprise 50.23 percent of the state's population as of 2023^[update]. While Israel lacks an official constitution, the Israeli Declaration of Independence of 1948 states that “The State of Israel (…) will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.”

Israeli law prohibits discrimination based on gender in matters such as employment and wages, and provides for class-action lawsuits. However, in tandem, wage disparities between men and women remain an issue in parts of the state. In a 2012 survey of 59 developed countries, Israel ranked 11th for participation of women in the workplace. In the same survey, Israel was ranked 24th for the proportion of women serving in executive positions of power.

Even before the State of Israel was created, there were female residents fighting for women's rights in the British Mandate. An example of this is the women in the New Yishuv. Yishuv is the term referring to the body of Jewish residents in Palestine before the establishment of the state of Israel, and New Yishuv refers to those who began building homes outside the Old City walls of Jerusalem in the 1860s. In 1919 the first nationwide women's party in the New Yishuv (the Union of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights in Eretz Israel) was created, and Rosa Welt-Straus, who had immigrated there that year, was appointed its leader, as which she continued until her death. One of the members of the union was Ada Geller, the first female accountant in Eretz Israel. In 1926 the Haredim, who preferred not to face the possibility of a plebiscite, left the Yishuv's Assembly of Representatives, and that year an official declaration was made (ratified by the mandate government in 1927) confirming "equal rights to women in all aspects of life in the Yishuv - civil, political, and economic."

Israel was the third country in the world to be led by a female prime minister, Golda Meir (1969-1974), and in 2010, women's parliamentary representation in Israel was 18 percent, which is above the Arab world's average of 6 percent and equals that of the U.S. Congress. Still, it trails far behind the Scandinavian countries' 40 percent average.

The Israeli parliament, The Knesset, has established “The Committee on the Status of Women,” to address women’s rights. The stated objectives of this committee are to prevent discrimination, combat violence against women, and promote equality in politics, lifecycle events and education. In 1998, the Knesset passed a law for "Prevention of Sexual Harassment".

In 2013, the Minister of Religious Affairs and Chief Rabbis issued statements telling ritual bath attendants only to inspect women who want inspection, putting an end to forced inspections of women at mikvehs.

In 2018, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was in Israel to accept the Genesis Lifetime Achievement award. She lamented the segregation of women in Israel at public universities, likening the practice to discriminatory "separate but equal" laws once applied to blacks in the United States.

In 2022, Zulat, an institution for equality and human rights, passes bill that assist the gender equality goal. For example, an amendment to integrate gender equality principles into all Knesset legislation. Another Amendment was a ban on gender based reunification discrimination of Palestinian citizens in Israel.