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Appendix No. 2 - Meeting with the Students in the Life Sciences Institute
May 19, 2004
This meeting was arranged in the framework of an investigation of the field of Life Sciences, as a test case of a unit in which the number of female students for all degrees is relatively high whereas the percentage of female faculty is low. Invitations were sent to 600 female students of the Life Sciences Institute (second year BA onward). They were asked to fill out questionnaires. The BA and MA students received one type of questionnaire while the Ph.D. students received another. The questionnaires were analyzed by Professor Nurit Yirmiya (see Summary of Questionnaires).
Only 39 students participated in the meeting (during the meeting some of them claimed that the low participation is due to time constraints), of whom 12 were BA students, 7 were MA students and 20 were Ph.D. students.
Main Issues Raised by the Students:
1. There is no baby day-care on the campuses. The day-care centers - for which the students are grateful - do not include baby care. It would be extremely helpful if there were baby day care centers, starting at the age of three months.
2. There are no nursing and diapering corners on the campuses (this issue has already been attended to).
3. The chances for a woman planning a family to find a Ph.D. supervisor are small. One student complained specifically about not getting along with her supervisor since she has become a mother.
4. Most supervisors are men, which may be an obstacle to an understanding of the unique problems facing women.
5. The burden on women with families during the second stage of the doctorate is much greater than that borne by men.
6. Disturbing sexist remarks: one student complained about irrelevant remarks on the part of her supervisor, creating tension and discomfort on her part.
7. The post-doctorate is crucial, but women at this stage often face the need to choose between career and family. Students expressed the wish, whenever possible, to be allowed to do the post-doc in Israel, e.g. at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Alternately, they suggested the establishment of a fund to help them equalize their income with that of their spouse, which might either persuade their spouses to join them abroad or enable them to travel back and forth.
8. Too much of the students’ time is spent on bureaucratic problems that are not directly related to their research. The working conditions of the Ph.D. students are unclear, everything depending on the head of the lab.
9. Women should not be discriminated against at the hiring stage because they are older. They should be allowed to dedicate a few years after completion of the Ph.D. to having a family , without prejudice to the later development of an academic career. This should be assimilated as a norm.
10. Academia is an extremely competitive world. Women often find themselves lagging behind - because of constraints - even when they excel in their studies. There should be fellowships unique to women, to make potential supervisors prefer them over men, at least during the period when they have to balance career and family. Alternately, the situation should be corrected for the benefit of both men and women, precisely in order not to perpetuate the situation of “women as problematic”.
11. A University website should be created with on-line information regarding funding sources for women, chat sites and links, for the benefit of women students and faculty.
12. A women’s support forum should be established, to which women could address complaints regarding difficulties unique to women, sexual harassment, sexual discrimination etc.
13. There is need for feminist education and consciousness-raising in relation to all of the above issues. At the initiative of one student, a course given by the Lafer Center for Women Studies was recognized as part of her elective courses.
14. The teaching assistants do not have recognized maternity leave. They have to plan their pregnancies around the courses.
15. Maternity leaves during the BA and the MA degrees should be institutionalized.
16. Women should be allowed to work late at night from their homes as well and not just from the lab and University premises.
17. Parking. The price of a sticker is IS500 per semester. An appeal to a special committee may reduce it by IS100, which is still expensive. Women would like to receive it free of charge. It would also solve the problem for those afraid to walk on campus alone at night.
18. Students asked why a committee investigating the women’s situation at the Hebrew University, is headed by a man.
Summary of Questionnaires
BA/MA Students: A total of 22 students completed the questionnaire. Of the students, 11 expressed the wish to have an academic career while only 5 of them are not yet interested at this stage. The rest have not yet decided. Seven women are already planning for a post-doc and a future in academia. Those who dismissed the possibility of such a future indicated economic and family difficulties as obstacles.
Ph.D. Students: A total of 21 students completed the questionnaire. Admittedly, this is a small and non-representative sample. Therefore, the following conclusions represent just this specific group. In the future, the results of a random sample will have to be compared with these ones.
Of the 21 students, 50% are at the stage at which their doctoral proposal has been approved and they are now conducting the research, while the other 50% have not yet reached this stage. Eight women expressed a wish to continue to an academic career, 8 negated such a career, and 5 have not yet decided. Those against an academic career indicated a desire to integrate into industry, technical work and colleges. Fourteen students plan on pursuing post-doctoral studies abroad, 5 do not and 2 have not yet decided. Noteworthy is the fact that more than half of the women (13 out of 21) did not specify any difficulties related to their being women. The difficulties specified by the other eight women revolved around two main axes: the economic axis and motherhood. Thus, most of the women who do experience difficulties are mothers, who find it more difficult to obtain fellowships, to devote long hours to research, and who need to leave the lab earlier than their fellow male or single researchers. Also noteworthy is the fact that the women who did not express a wish to go abroad for a post-doc, indicated economic and family situation, as the main obstacles.
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