29/10/2019

Women in Academia

Women – Undergraduate Courses of Study

  • Doubling the number of female students studying computer science (including in mathematics and statistics)
  • A significant increase in the number of female students studying engineering

 

This impressive increase in high-tech subjects is also expressed in the breakdown of female students by fields of study. The data shows that since the start of the decade, the number of female students enrolled in undergraduate computer science programs (including mathematics and statistics) has increased from 2,622 (in 2010) to 5,602 female students in 2019. A significant increase has also been seen in engineering studies: From 8,581 female students in 2010 to 10,389 female students in 2019.

We note that in the framework of the general program for reinforcing high-tech subjects, the PBC has promoted a dedicated program in the last several years to increase the number of women enrolled in high-tech study programs with an emphasis on computer science. These programs include financial incentives for institutions in order to provide scholarships and grants to students as well as seminars that will expose students to high-tech subjects, and to provide a support structure that includes tutoring and personal accompaniment.

In addition, like the pattern evidenced by the general data, the breakdown of fields of study among women in the past decade has been characterized by a decrease in social sciences (from 27,222 female students in 2010 to 23,759 female students in 2019) and in law (from 7,695 female students in 2010 to 6,585 female students in 2019). Similarly, we note that in the past decade, a significant increase has been recorded in the number of female students in education and teacher training as well as in paramedical subjects.

 

 

Women Constitute Approximately 60% of the Students in Academia

  • In a multiyear view of the decade: There has been a jump in the number of female graduate students.The percentage of women students in the 2018/19 school year was approximately 59%, after a significant increase in the participation by women in academic studies, primarily in the 1990s. Women are currently the majority in each degree level: Undergraduate degrees – 58%, graduate degrees – 63%, and doctoral degrees – 53%.There has also been an impressive increase over the years in the participation by women in advanced degree studies. In the 1989/90 academic year, the percentage of women among those studying for a master’s degree surpassed 50%, and in the 2018/19 academic year, as previously noted, their numbers reached 63%. This increase in the percentage of women stems from academic colleges starting to offer graduate degree studies. The percentage of women among doctoral students surpassed the 50% mark for the first time at the end 1990s and has increased in the last several years, reaching 53% in the 2018/19 academic year.

 

The Program for Gender Equality by Increasing the Representation by Women in Academic Staff

Parallel to the actions taken to encourage women to enter high-tech studies, the PBC and the CHE as part of efforts to increase the representation by women among academic staff in institutions of higher education as well, made a series of decisions to advance this goal according to recommendations by the committee headed by Prof. Rivka Carmi, the former President of Ben-Gurion University, whose conclusions were submitted in 2011, and an additional committee headed by Prof. Ruth Arnon, the then President of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, which submitted a report in 2013. The program for “Gender Equality” conforms to the principles established by the CHE to increase the number of senior female academic staff and is based on the recommendations by Prof. Arnon’s committee, the main points of which are increasing awareness of gender equality in institutions of higher education and hiring and promoting women in senior academic staff, in general, and in the fields in which women are especially poorly represented, such as the exact sciences and in the various engineering fields, in particular.

  • Scholarships for outstanding female postdoctoral students in the sum of up to $80,000 (for two years)
  • Scholarships for female doctoral students in high-tech fields in the sum of NIS 150,000 (for three years) and scholarships for female graduate students in high-tech fields in the sum of NIS 80,000 (for two years)
  • Prizes in the sum of approximately 1 million shekels per year to institutions that excel at promoting and implementing gender equality
  • A dedicated budget for activities by presidential consultants on gender equality at institutions of higher education