Prof. Yael Fisher, Rector of Achava Academic College, says that the gender gap, in particular in the field of exact sciences, starts at school, and continues in the senior faculty of the academy
With the announcement of Nobel Prize Winners in Physics For the developers of methods in the field of lasers and optics, an interesting fact became clear. Donna Strickland from the University of Waterloo in Canada is only the third woman to win the prestigious award after Marie Curie in 1903 and Maria Goffert-Meyer in 1963.
Chemistry also has a woman winner this year - Frances Arnold from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) fifth overall, nine years after the fourth winner - Prof. Ada Yonat in 2009. They were preceded by Marie Curie in 1911, Irene Julio Curie in 1935, and Dorothy Croft Hodgkin in 1964. The year Yonat received the Nobel Prize was also a record year in terms of women winners - five women.
Prof. Yael Fisher, Rector of Achava Academic College, is not surprised. In a conversation with the site of the knowledge, she says that there is a worldwide problem of a drop in the number of women when it comes to senior academic positions. "For example, today in Israel there are about 200 full-time female professors, which are about 20% of all full-time professors, while in universities and departments for higher degrees there are more female students than male students, even by a considerable amount."
"If we have more PhD holders in Israel than men with PhDs. Why was this barrier created? I have personal experience of an exhausting process until I received the rank of professor, and I believe that this happens to other women as well. Do you expect more from us? Is the bias built in?”
"It is not just about the exact sciences. The situation in the humanities and social sciences is no different. You need to ask why this is happening and what can be done differently. After all, we do not lose our cognitive ability nor our skills in the transition between third degrees and professorships. The best example of this is that with the exception of Prof. Rivka Karmi (President of Ben Gurion University) and Prof. Hagit Messer Yaron (former President of the Open University), and the incoming President of the Open University Prof. Mimi Eisenstadt, no women have served as presidents of research universities until now. Even in the general colleges, the majority of presidents are still men. In colleges of education, the number of women in office is greater, but still most of the presidents are men. "
Regarding Nobel prize recipients, the fact that Jews make up 0.21% of the world's population is interesting, and yet, according to estimates, about 25% of the winners were Jews, but even among them the number of women is minimal."
Is this gap a consequence of the education system?
"I am engaged in the field of education director. In the elementary schools there is a big gap in favor of the female principals but in the secondary schools there is a gap in favor of the men. Where and why do we stop being an attraction? Why are we only trusted up to sixth grade and suddenly in seventh grade we are less talented?"
"Also among board members and CEOs of business companies there are more men than women, but we see more women at the head of social associations. There is a stereotype that we can't get out of."
"On my personal level, when everyone was amazed that I got the professorship, and even mentioned my being a woman, I asked what is the difference between me and another person, I should be equally happy. The achievement is no more impressive than simply being a woman."
As we have seen, among Nobel laureates in science, the problem is more serious, do you have an explanation for this?
"The research deals a lot with the issue of why women are considered to have lower abilities in the sciences. Quite a few studies have found that male and female teachers react differently to boys and girls when it comes to subjects of exact sciences. For example, when a girl succeeds in math tests, the form of encouragement is different. When a girl does not understand a subject in mathematics, the teachers will address her in a different language than they would address a boy who does not understand. They will be more forgiving and explain more slowly and the body language is also different"
"The question is why we are explained from a young age that the abilities of girls are different from those of boys. Now we see the beginning of a change, among other things, there are more girls in Israel's delegations to the mathematics, physics, and chemistry Olympiads."
"Even today in 2018, the expectation from women is still completely different from the expectations that society has from men. If a woman decides to stay at home or work part time and raise the children society will accept it. If a man reaches a similar decision, he will be looked at as "lazy". "
"Even in the field of grandmothers, grandmothers are still expected to spend time with their grandchildren after school or on vacations, even if she works full-time. With all the progress, women are still "stuck" in stereotypes.
How do you personally and the academic college of Afraim whose rector deal with the problem?
Here, at Achava Academic College, there are more women in the academic and administrative staff. The entire management is also female - both the president, the CEO and the rector. That's why we don't need to explain in the gender reports that we submit to the MLA what we do at the College for the Advancement of Women. I have no real explanation of what we won or what we do "more correctly" in relation to other academic institutions. Achava Academic College is a public college, operating in the periphery, in the Be'er Tovia regional council. We are considered a medium-sized college, approximately 3,500 students and teach Science (B.Sc.), Psychology (BA) and Teaching Certificate (B.Ed.). We are also developing in the field of advanced degrees (five programs), and we have approval to submit a master's degree thesis (M.Ed) in education systems administration and are waiting for the approval of the MLA to open two new MA programs.
The gender breakdown of our students is also predominantly female, mainly in the fields of education, but also in the social sciences and the humanities, the majority are female students. In the sciences, the rate is quite similar, even though we do not resort to affirmative action against women.. I estimate that if we suddenly saw a high percentage of men in a certain field, we might think about whether there is a need to take action of "affirmative action". There is indeed one field - information systems, where there are more students, but we are only in the second year of the program's operation and it is not enough time to say if this is a phenomenon."
In conclusion, Prof. Fisher says: "There is a stereotypical problem, women are still seen as thinking first of all about home and children and men are seen as thinking first of all about their careers. It needs to be changed, and it starts with education and at home."
The list of Nobel Prize winning women, on Wikipedia
More of the topic in Hayadan:
- Only three women won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry until Ada Yonat won
- Israelis, Jews and winning international awards
- Nobel Prize in Physics for discoverers of advances in the field of optical physics
- 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for harnessing evolution to develop environmentally friendly catalysts, proteins and antibodies
6 תגובות
One side: it's a bit strange that a "professor" at such an insignificant college preaches something to academia (research universities) on some subject.
Second side: it is appropriate to receive an interview or an article on the subject from representatives of real academia (and research universities).
I do not deny discrimination. I am in favor of equal competition, and equal conditions.
I am not ready to accept that professorships are blocked in the western world. We have Ada Yonat, Yonina Elder, the late Miriam Merzani, Mary Currie, and more.
Anyone who is talented, in my opinion, has a chance to advance. In Israel, in the Western world. In the Western world: Professor Pei Pei Ling at Stanford, the late Miriam Merzani. Women from China and Iran. In other parts of the world women are probably disadvantaged.
Even if it is hypothetically found that in an environment where the conditions are equal for men and especially talented women, then men are more successful - in my opinion, this should not be used to the detriment of women. In my opinion, men and women are probably equally successful.
Yosef / Haki Hayon
One of the reasons for discrimination against women is the denial of discrimination against people like you. Get out of your bubble and learn about the world.
The graph of the distribution of intelligence is sharper for women than for men, meaning that at the end of the tail - in both directions - there are more men. After several decades of providing equal opportunities and encouraging children to also engage in questionable sciences, maybe it's time to stop denying the facts to fit some egalitarian vision that has no empirical evidence?
I am not ready for "sectarian" reasons to be introduced into the academy. Those who are scientifically gifted can find their way to academia.
There are professorships in the Academy and also in the Academy of Sciences.
Anyone who wants to be an administrator at the academy, should go to the Knesset.
The grades determine admission to an academic institution. and progress on track. Creativity in research.
What does discrimination have to do with it? The discrimination is perhaps in the section of child care. This is also the equinox day in some houses.
Laws of life, if all due respect to the blessed and talented female power in the entire world, so far men have the upper hand, men have vision and the ability to think and develop out of the ordinary. In countries that are not dictators, women do have the opportunity to compete with men, but men are more talented than women. In the foreseeable future, many possibilities will open up and I am sure that the talent between men and women will be balanced, perhaps with a certain advantage for the talent of the men. There are many women who live in non-dictatorial countries and whose parents were financially established and supported and promoted their daughters and enrolled their daughters in excellent educational institutions and yet the men are more talented.