Israeli universities record more female in Doctorates than men in 2013

Bar Ilan University

For first time in Israeli universities, more women will receive Doctor of Science degrees than men will in 2013. Female department head at Bar Ilan University: ‘We have yet to cross main barrier,’ referring to substantial majority of men in senior faculty

This year in Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University and Bar Ilan University, more women will receive science PhDs than men will, for the first time in Israel, and in the world as well.

According to the figures, given by the Tel Aviv University President’s Advisor of Women’s Affairs Prof. Rachel Erhard, this year 105 women will receive doctoral degrees in life sciences, exact sciences, engineering and medicine, as opposed to 95 men, while at the Hebrew University the ratio stands at 120 women to 104 men. In Bar Ilan University, 33 women will receive a PhD in sciences, compared to 27 men.

Another woman to receive a doctorate at the Hebrew University ceremony is singer Barbra Streisand – who will be performing in Israel and receive the doctorate as an honorary degree.

The women’s achievements are a real revolution in comparison to previous years. Last year, 116 men received PhDs in science at the Hebrew University, as opposed to 112 women, and in 2011, 141 men received the degree compared to 90 women. In addition, between 2000 and 2004, 482 men in total received a doctoral degree as opposed to only 346 women.

“We have yet to cross the main barrier,” said Professor Bilha Fischer, head of the Bar Ilan University’s Chemistry Department,” and that barrier is equally integrating in the academia’s senior faculty.”

The Hebrew University’s President Advisor for Gender Affairs, Professor Batsheva Kerem added: “It is good that we have overcome this obstacle, but in secondary schools in Israel and around the world there is still a relatively small number of female students who turn to the scientific-technological direction, and I hope this would change as well.”