Ariane de Rothschild Women’s Doctoral Program: empowering women in academia
Supporting female PhD students to go further
Accomplished women seeking to continue their academic career to the highest level may have to confront serious obstacles, especially those from diverse backgrounds, which may lead to many abandoning their preferred path.
The Ariane de Rothschild Women’s Doctoral Program provides scholarships as well as workshops and community building events to exceptional female PhD students in Israel across various scientific fields.
Gender inequality continues to resonate in multiple areas of our lives. Women and girls still have to deal with challenges that men and boys don’t, whether it’s in a lower pay package, a lack of access to primary or secondary education, or disadvantages in reproductive health.
Each country has specific areas in which women struggle to advance, and in Israel, one of those spheres is academia.
Opening the book
In the 2022/23 academic year, women constituted 60% of higher education students in Israel (60% in BA, 63% in MA, and 53% in PhD programs), which seems impressive – more than half! However, while women make up the clear majority in education/teacher training (80%) and paramedical studies (83%), they are woefully under-represented in physical sciences (30%), mathematics/computer science (32-40%), and engineering/architecture (35%).
What’s more, women make up just 34% of senior faculty in Israeli universities 45% in funded academic colleges, and only 20% of tenured professors.
The significance of ethnicity is also notable. The composition of the Israeli population, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, is 73.2% Jewish, 21% Arab (including Muslims, Christians, and Druze, along with other subgroups such as the Bedouin, a Muslim population residing mostly in southern Israel) and 5.7% other religious or ethnic groups. However, Arabs constitute fewer than 18% of students in all degree programs, and no more than 3.5% of lecturers, administrative staff, and directors. In some Israeli universities, Arab representation in certain areas was zero according to a 2013 study published by the non-for-profit organization Sikkuy.
The composition of the Israeli population, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (2024), is 73.5% Jewish, 21% Arab, and 5.4% other religious or ethnic groups. The Arab population consists of Muslims, Christians, and Druze. It includes additional subgroups, such as the
Bedouins—a Muslim population with a unique culture, from which 80% resides in southern Israel and 20% in the northen.
Excelling in academia
The Women’s Doctoral Program is a recognition of the right of women from diverse backgrounds to go as far as they can in their studies, enabling them to focus on their research without financial concerns. It challenges outdated gender stereotypes that wrongly suggest a conflict between a woman’s personal responsibilities and her professional pursuits. And it’s a call to change the wider university system so that such programs eventually don’t even need to exist.
Founded in 2009 at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, its scope now includes the Technion, Tel Aviv University, the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Each year, these institutions award four scholarships to top female students.
Selection is based on academic excellence and personal background, considering diversity, leadership, and community involvement. The scholarship, renewable for up to four years, covers tuition, a living stipend, and research fund for attending international conference and purchase of computer and other necessary devices. Recipients are required to volunteer for 56 hours a year in educational projects that promote youth empowerment.
During its 14 years of activity, the program supported 92 doctoral students. Of these, 20% were from the Arab sector and 11% from the Jewish religious/Haredi sector.
Pioneering students
These talented women are accumulating a notable number of ‘firsts’. For instance, Reem Al-Aasam was the first Bedouin woman to complete bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science at Ben-Gurion University.
Then there’s Iman Jaljuli. Not only was she the first Arab religious woman in her community to pursue a PhD in exact sciences, but she was also the first Arab female graduate student in statistics at Tel Aviv University.
“Women have long been under-represented in senior academic positions in Israeli universities, an environment that for long has been dominated by men.”
Prof. Joseph Klafter, President Tel Aviv University
The next chapter
The support that the Women’s Doctoral Programme provides to individuals also pays a greater dividend. As these women move into key positions in Israeli society, they promote diversity, inclusion and gender equality, leading to deeper and more impactful change in that society.