WIZO IN A 100

One hundred words on WIZO (Women’s International Zionist Organization) in honor of its centennial

Elections: WIZO (Women’s International Zionist Organization) established Israel’s first and only women’s political party. It ran in the State’s very first elections in 1949, garnering 1.2% of the vote and winning one seat. The party was represented in the Knesset by the legendary Rachel CohenKagan, then-chairperson of WIZO Israel and the only woman besides Golda Meir to have signed Israel’s Declaration of Independence. The party also proposed the “Women’s Equal Rights Law”, protecting women against sex discrimination, which was passed in 1951. In 1955, WIZO elected not to continue as a political party, choosing to remain a volunteer, nonpolitical, organization.