Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely is a super-mom and a super-lawmaker.
Two weeks ago she gave birth to her third daughter in five years. Despite being out on maternity leave because as we mentioned, she GAVE BIRTH TWO WEEKS AGO, yesterday, she showed up at the Israeli Parliament to vote on several pieces of legislation, including one bill that would require more ultra-Orthodox men to enlist in the army.
The baby, named Noa, was born prematurely, Hotovely said on her Facebook page in a post a week after she gave birth.
Hotovely was elected to Knesset in 2009, at the age of 30. She was married in 2013 to attorney Or Alon. Daughter Maayan was born in 2014, and Eliraz in 2016.
Hotovely said in an interview last year with You, an Israeli women’s magazine: “In the Knesset there are maybe three or four women in my situation – mothers with small children. There are a lot of demands placed on us, and the political world doesn’t accept that. I’ve been told that this has hurt my career, and maybe that’s true. Maybe I could have been a minister, instead of just a deputy minister.”
She also told the magazine that her mother helps with the children, sometimes putting them to bed before she or her husband comes home. She said that motherhood has opened her eyes to the deficiencies in Israeli laws that deal with women and work.
(Be sure to check out our video on an Israeli lawmaker who decided to have a baby on her own.)
Header image via Facebook
