Women are a minority in the senior academic staff in Israel - 29% in universities, 39% in budgeted colleges

This is according to a report presented yesterday by the Committee for the Promotion and Representation of Women in Higher Education Institutions at the Ministry of Science

The Committee for the Promotion and Representation of Women in Institutions of Higher Education, chaired by Prof. Ruth Arnon, President of the National Academy of Sciences, submitted its conclusions today (Sunday) to the Minister of Science, Technology and Space Dani Danon and to the Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly Professor Hagit Messer Yaron.

The committee, which began operating in 2013, is shared by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Council for the Advancement of Women in Science and Technology at the Ministry of Science, headed by Prof. Nurit Yeremia, the chief scientist at the ministry. In the report, the committee reviewed the situation of women in higher education institutions in Israel, including the various barriers preventing their progress.

The report shows that women are currently a minority in the senior academic staff in Israel, their rate is about 29% in universities, and 39% in budgeted colleges. Another finding that emerges from the report is that in the aspects of promotion in the senior academic staff there are noticeable gender gaps and in all the various institutions and fields the proportion of women goes down with the increase in rank, while women make up a majority of the student body.

The data on the representation of women in the senior academic staff shows that in the subjects of exact sciences and natural sciences there are particularly low proportions of women: 11% in mathematics and computer sciences and 13% in physical natural sciences. This is in contrast to the humanities, society and education subjects, where their proportion is slightly higher, but even there they are still a minority: 37% in the social sciences and 38% in the humanities. Also in the student body there are noticeable differences, where in the subjects of engineering, mathematics, statistics and computer science, women make up between 25% and 31% of the various degrees, compared to the subjects of education and medical assistance where their proportion reaches 75%-82%.

Also in terms of faculty recruitment, it appears that women are a minority among those admitted to universities and colleges, even in recent years. Only 34% of those admitted to the universities and 45% of the colleges budgeted in the years XNUMX-XNUMX are women. It should be noted that here too there is a large difference between the fields. These disparities are especially noticeable against the background of the fact that women constitute a majority among those who complete and complete a doctorate in Israel - which constitute a major potential for research.
The total percentage of faculty members in Israeli universities, which stands at 29%, is particularly low compared to the USA, and compared to the European Union countries, where the percentage of faculty members stands at about 40%, Israel ranks next to last in relation to them.

The barriers to the advancement of women in institutions of higher education:
The report shows that the source of these and other gaps lies in a variety of barriers and influences in the stages of women's academic career development. At the stage of finishing the professional training and turning to a research career, barriers related to the decision to go for a post-doctorate abroad were identified; to different sets of expectations towards female researchers from the environment and themselves; and their belief about their chances of success in being accepted into the faculty in the future. During the phase of admission to the faculty, barriers were identified related to a low pool of candidates in some areas; to the professional relationships of candidates and candidacies, which affect their acceptance processes; and for recruitment and job posting processes, used in institutions. Regarding staff promotion, barriers have been identified that refer to the dynamics of promoting promotion processes in institutions; for a balance between "public" time and "private" time of the researchers; and to the quality of their networks and professional connections within the institutions.

The main recommendations of the committee:

The committee's recommendations are aimed at raising awareness among all the parties concerned with the academy's activities, and at the same time encouraging and incentivizing the institutions to undertake a commitment to promote the issue independently:

1.  Directing women to academic research: The committee recommends expanding the number and nature of doctoral scholarships for women; to grant dedicated scholarships to doctoral students for academic activity abroad; as well as scholarships in fields where there is a low percentage of women and low funding sources. The committee also recommends working to improve initiation and guidance processes during the PhD.
2. Recruitment of women to the senior academic staff: The committee recommends formulating a recruitment procedure that will be recommended to the institutions; promote gender training of the recruitment committee and heads of departments; and establish platforms that will assist in pro-active recruitment.
3. Promotion of women in the senior academic staff: The committee recommends acting to continue promoting the recommendations of the Karmi team; to encourage and incentivize in a budgetary way the higher education institutions to deal with the issue of women's advancement; To encourage holding seminars and workshops to raise awareness among officials in the institutions. Also, the committee recommends that the examination of the subject be integrated into the evaluation of the quality of the institutions. and at the same time support policy-supporting studies on barriers for women in academia, and the creation of a "Family-Friendly" standard for institutions of higher education.
4. Supplementary recommendations: eA committee recommends regulating the manner of collecting gender data and incorporating it into the ongoing activities of the relevant bodies, instructing the institutions to publish annual data on their websites, as well as continuing to regulate the role of the advisor to the president for the advancement and empowerment of women, and developing work tools for the advisory authority.

Minister of Science, Technology and Space Danny Danon thanked the committee's team and said that "the data presented in the report are disgraceful and shameful and do not befit an advanced society like Israeli society. All academic institutions in the State of Israel must conduct an immediate home inspection and lead to a change regarding the integration of women. In light of the data, we must work in cooperation to grant incentives to academic institutions in which there will be a proper representation of women in the academic staff. Upon entering the position, I decided to work for the promotion and integration of women in science and technology, and I defined the coming year in my office as a year - 'Women breaking ground in science and technology'."

The deputy chairman of the MLA, Professor Hagit Messer Yaron, said that the MLA plenum discussed the report, congratulated it, and made a series of decisions aimed at raising awareness of the possibility of gender bias. Accordingly, it was decided that a gender reference will be incorporated into all the relevant procedures and instructions issued by the Ministry of Education and Culture. The MLA believes that such awareness will bring about a significant improvement in the representation of women in academia. Prof. Messer Yaron added that the MLA will oblige the higher education institutions to report regularly on their activities to promote and recruit women in the senior academic staff.

Implementation of the committee's recommendations: Ministry of Science

In accordance with the committee's conclusions and recommendations on the subjects of directing women to academic research, promoting women in senior academic staff and its other recommendations, this year the Ministry of Science will promote a number of programs in which it will invest more than NIS 30 million, subject to budgetary approval. Among the plans: establishment of a knowledge center for women and gender; Funding for travel scholarships for post-doctoral training for women abroad; Funding of scholarships for bachelor's degrees in subjects where women are represented very low, funding of scholarships for doctoral studies, funding of conferences on women's and gender studies; Creating a plan to raise awareness about unconscious gender bias in the private and public sector; An extensive publicity campaign in the framework of which 2015 will be designated as the year of "women breaking ground in science and technology", including a campaign centered on women scientists who are role models, a campaign for girls on children's channels and lectures by women scientists throughout the country.

This is in addition to the existing programs of the ministry to deal with the issue: awarding scholarships to female students in their academic studies in the exact sciences and engineering; Funding research to develop a policy for the advancement of women in Israel; Running the "Future Scientists" program to promote outstanding girls from the periphery to work in the fields of science in which approximately 500 girls participate every year; and holding conferences and workshops on the subject.

Implementation of the committee's recommendations: MLA and OT

In addition, the Higher Education Council will require reports and data from the institutions regarding the gender aspects of their activities, will direct the institutions to publish gender data on a regular basis and hold periodic discussions on these issues with the participation of the institutions' representatives. In addition, MLA will publish a recommendation for a recruitment procedure for the senior academic staff in the institutions, which refers to the gender issue, and will encourage the institutions to act to create a pro-active recruitment mechanism that will support the recruitment of women. In addition, you will participate in formulating a standard/ranking of higher education institutions that support the family.

At the same time, the Committee for Planning and Budgeting (VAT) decided at its last meeting to gradually increase the number of scholarships in the program for outstanding doctoral students. In addition, VT will participate in the start-up budgeting of the activities of the women's affairs advisors in the budgeted institutions and will allocate a competitive budget to support a joint horizontal activity to promote the issue. The votes calling and the bylaws regarding the VT merit scholarships and the scholarships for faculty admission (Alon and Moaf) will be updated so that the institutions will be required to submit a list of gender-balanced candidates, or to justify the lack of adequate representation for women.