Tecnológico de Monterrey’s School of Social Sciences and Government (https://tec.mx/en/about-us) designed the Democracy and Global Affairs Research Group to elaborate proposals for designing mechanisms and incentives to strengthen democracy in Mexico.
As part of a project within the gender gap research line, Dr. Samuel Segura Cobos is conducting interviews across Israeli research universities to understand both the challenges and solutions implemented to encourage women in science and reduce the gender gap.
Prof. Shulamit Almog, Head of the Gender Equity Unit, offered key insights on the university’s institutional programs and policies .
The findings from these interviews will result in a report and academic publications to understand best practices from around the world on bridging gender equality and equity in science.
AEN (project of academic engagement network) delegation held these days a visit at the University of Haifa.
The participants of this distinguished delegation included senior officials in the field of diversity.
On this occasion, we would like to thank Dr. Yael Granot-Bein, director of the community engagement unit at the Dean of Students, for her presentation on diversity and inclusion, as well as to the diverse group of students who participated in the meeting. Looking forward to continued cooperation in the future
The Diversity, Equity and Equality Unit hosted the management of the Ibrahim Student Leadership & Dialogue Middle East Program from CUNY University in New-York.
The distinguished delegation included Sophia McGee, Director of the Intercultural Engagement and Dialogue, Prof. Mark Rosenblum, program director, Hindi Goldstein, program coordinator, and Najawa El-Sayed, project manager. Among other things, the program holds an annual learning tour for students of different religions, during which they visit several countries in the Middle East, including Israel. The participants meet a wide variety of figures, government organizations and cultural institutions in each country.
Our unit, in collaboration with Dr. Faina Milman-Sivan, the deputy dean at the Faculty of Law, who participated in the meeting, and students from the Faculty of Law are planning a joint activity with the program.
We started off with a workshop for women researchers!
The Diversity, Equity and Equality Unit conducts a several sessions workshop for women researchers from University of Haifa and other academic institutions. The workshop focuses on making personal choices at different points in time along the academic path and in receiving answers to specific challenges.
Dr. Smadar Porat, an expert in aspects of leadership development in the field of organizational psychology, leads the workshop.
Prof. Shay Tzafrir, Dean of Teaching, Prof. Michal Biron, head of the General MBA Program at the School of Business Administration and Prof. Tali Kristal from the Department of Sociology will be among the guests of the workshop.
We wish all participants a beneficial and enjoyable workshop!
Prof. Shulamit Almog chaired the “Women and Science” session at a university-wide conference of researchers, in which the University of Haifa was represented by Dr. Shani Stern from the Sagol Department of Neurobiology.
Prof. Noya Rimalt from the Faculty of Law spoke also represented the university at the webinar event, which took place on May 2.
You can watch recorded videos of the event at the following link: https://webinarservices.biz/recordazmaut020523
In March 2023, Prof. Shulamit Almog, Head of the Diversity and Equality Unit, presented the Unit activities in a webinar on gender, politics and law of Enrole! – The Human Rights and the Rule of Law Speaker Series.
Prof. Almog talked about the barriers that women face today in academia, including hidden barriers of prejudice, barriers that are related to an unsupportive or non-gender adjusted environment, etc.
Along with the dismal data on gender equity in Europe and Israel Prof. Almog presented the existing programs to promote gender equity at the University of Haifa, including the Equator Index program based on data collection and formulating applied guidelines based on them, the Metis project, which includes a mentoring and support for women at the beginning of their career.
Link to Prof.Shulamit Almog’s lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYZlwS_3TBU
International Women's Day
On the occasion of International Women’s Day (March 8 2023) a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women and marking a call to forge a gender equal world, the Diversity and Equality Unit initiated and participated in relevant activities. The Head of the Diversity and Equality Unit, and the presidential advisor on Gender Equity, Prof. Shulamit Almog, was interviewed in Anat Sharon Blais’s “One+Five”podcast on “Kan Tarbut” – the national broadcaster. Prof. Almog presented five female literary characters, and the way in which the characters echo different concepts related to equality.
The Unit organized, together with The Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library at the University of Haifa unique cultural event, which welcomed the communities of the University and of the city of Haifa. The event – titled “Women Creators” -took place in the library square, and hosted MATURA – a group of local women who are motivated by the passion to dance. Following their captivating performance, Prof. Shulamit Almog presented her talk – “Postcards from the Venice Biennale ”, which focused on the reasons for the lack of appropriate representation of women artists in the History of Art.
Cost Action -Making Young Researchers’ Voices Heard for Gender Equality
The Diversity, Equity, and Equality Unit’s representatives take part in a European research project to promote the participation of young female researchers in decision-making bodies in academic institutions. The project, called “Cost Action -Making Young Researchers’ Voices Heard for Gender Equality“, explores issues such as leadership and decision-making, gender-based violence, organizational culture, career development, and occupational mobility.
The Unit, together with 33 institutions out of the 100 participating in the COST, volunteered to take part in a research project concerning the participation of female researchers at the beginning of their academic careers in decision-making bodies at the academic institution.
On November 22, 2022, the Unit submitted a data report concerning the University of Haifa and in December 2022 a meeting was held with the participants from other countries, who also prepared the reports on their behalf.
On February 13-17, 2023, an international conference was held in Malta, which included workshops and presentations by the Cost working groups. The various sessions were attended by representatives from many universities around the world including Belgium, Spain, Estonia, Albania, Germany, France, Turkey, Poland, Moldova, America, Greece, Austria, Latvia, Switzerland, Lithuania, Scotland, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Romania, Ireland, England, and Malta. The representatives of the Unit were the only ones from Israel and they presented the activity undertaken at the national and institutional level at the University of Haifa to improve participation of women in the academic staff in general and of researchers at the beginning of their career in particular.
In the picture – the head of the Unit – Prof. Shulamit Almog with the project manager Prof. Anne-Sophie Godfroy at the University of Malta.
Law, Art, Alice and OPEN AI
The Diversity and Equality Unit sees great importance in promoting relationships with the community in Haifa and in the north.
Therefore, we were happy to accept the invitation of University of Haifa for Youth to take part in an event, in which pupils from the “Reut school of arts” in Haifa were hosted on campus.
As part of the event, the head of the unit, Prof. Shulamit Almog, conducted workshops centered on an extraordinary figure – the heroine of Carol Lewis’s book Alice in Wonderland. Alice was presented in the workshops as a girl who represents strength, intelligence and sensitivity, who understands easily that the “legal” process in “Wonderland” is contrary to the common legal poetics. Through the poetic fallacies pointed out by Alice, the pupils learned about the poetics of law and how it is expressed in courts.Prof. Almog discussed with the pupils a question that fascinates many these days – Could AI tools replace the human imagination, and produce partially similar literature, to the eternal work of Carol Lewis. Interestingly, the pupils answered unanimously – NO!
News and Events
Gender Equity in Academia -International Workshop
The higher the academic ranks, the fewer women will be there – this is according to worldwide data that was presented this week at an international workshop conducted at the University of Haifa.
The workshop, first of its kind, was launched by The Forum for Gender, Law and Policy headed by Prof. Shulamit Almog and Prof. Noya Rimalt and the Diversity, Equity and Equality Unit headed by Prof. Shulamit Almog from the University of Haifa, in cooperation with Dr. Anne Wagner from University of Lille, France.
The discussion and various presentations focused on the continuous gap between men and women at higher academic levels, the lack of sufficient women in academic management positions, and the unique obstacles women still face, including implicit bias, lack of gender mainstreaming, and institutional gendered ethos.
Dr. Victoria Showunmi presented an interactive lecture on multiple identities and on intersectionality as an important factor in gender equity research. Dr. Benjamin Reese, talked about unconscious bias and interesting and creative ways to overcome it. Maya Ashkenazi presented her and Dr. Himi’s research regarding gender equity in budgeted academic colleges and structural inequality between colleges and universities that intensifies the gender gap in colleges. Dr. Sigal Nagar-Ron, Dr. Sagit Kedem-Yemini, and Dr. Tammy Razi offered perspectives on intersectional analysis via unique tools of process mining. Prof. Ester Herzog discussed the significant impact of female college researchers on academic social anthropological research and women’s studies in Israel. Prof. Yonina Eldar – Head of the Council for Higher Education Committee for Gender Equality – presented the challenges and the interesting directions of promoting gender equity initiatives in Israeli academia, and Prof. Shulamit Almog discussed the implementation and adjustments of these initiatives in the University of Haifa. Dr. Rakibe Külcür presented a combined research held with Dr. Fatma Güneri, & Dr. Pelin Gül, on academic culture and academic policies related to gender equity in universities in Turkey, France, and the Netherlands. Prof. Heidemarie Winkel demonstrated the struggles required in promoting gender equality policy against individual players and academic cultures that oppose or ignore those efforts at the political and social levels. Prof. Marija Lučić–Ćatić presented research by her and Prof. Muamer Kavazović on how gender equity initiatives are conceptualized and organized, whether integrated or translated, into pragmatics at the University of Sarajevo. This session was sealed by Prof. Chiara Battisti’s fascinating lecture on “Crystal Ceilings and Sticky Floors” in Italian academia in general and at the University of Verona in particular. The evening session on women in science and technology professions was opened by Dr. Meytal Eran-Jona who presented her joint research with Prof. Yossi Nir on the perceptions of doctoral and post-doctoral female physics students in Israel on continuing their academic careers. The session was signed by Dr. Shlomit Aharoni Lir on her research on the influence of participation in social and professional media networks on empowering abilities and capability of an action in the scientific academic arena.
The workshop was attended by researchers who play important roles in the field of gender equity in academia in Israel, which contributed to an engaging discussion. This workshop provided a venue for a diverse discourse, for establishing connections among the participants, and for collaborations between the University of Haifa and leading academic institutions worldwide.
A warm thanks to the chairman of the sessions: Prof. Ravit Raufman, Dr. Maayan Sudai, Prof. Lotem Perry-Hazan, and Dr. Shani Stern, and to the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Prof. Tal Tzarsky, who took part in the event.
For abstracts click here
The second event “Combating Gender-Based Violence” will take place from 3-6 July 2023 at the University Lille (France).
The Handmaid’s Tale and Contemporary Dilemmas of Gender Equality: Revisiting Margaret Atwood’s Dystopian Novel (November 17, 2022) The Diversity and Equality Unit at the University of Haifa in collaboration with the Forum for Gender Law and Policy and with the help of Israeli Friends of the University of Haifa held an inspiring event hosted by the Canadian Embassy- Amb. Lisa Stadelbauer. Prof. Noya Rimalt and Prof. Shulamit Almog discussed Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale”, its powerful feminist critique that remains relevant after so many years and recent gender-related global developments that shed light on the significance of this book and the future of gender equality.
Academic Leadership Workshop for Faculty Members May 2022, Took part in the workshop: Prof. Shulamit Almog, Presidential advisor on gender equity; Dr. Vardit Garber, Academic secretary; Prof. Ariel Bendor, Bar Ilan University (on the right) , Dr. Meital Eran Yona, Weizmann Institute (on the left) ; Prof. Daphna canneti, dean Faculty of Social Sciences; Prof, Rosa Laikin, Dean Faculty of Education and Dr. Vered Arev- Yehene.
The University of Haifa and the Technion are proud to present: Academy on the Bar A joint International Women’s Day 2022 event
“A Journey Through Time: Women’s Wisdom from Ancient Greece to the Discovery of DNA Structure”
you are invited to join us for some fascinating lectures from Prof. Shulamit Almog, The presidential advisor and Gender Equity Commissioner at the University of Haifa and Prof. Adi Salzberg, Presidential advisor on Advancement of Women in Science and Engineering from Technion.
March 6, 2022 at 8:30 pm at the Sleek Pub
124 Sderot Hanasi, Haifa
Photos: Rami Shlush, Lilach Bareket
Prof. Shulamit Almog’s Keynote Lecture on “What’s Between ME TOO and Prostitution?” At the 2nd International Conference on the Sex Industry
The 2nd International Conference on the Sex Industry will be held on March 7-8, 2022. The conference is organized by the Safed Academic College.
Join the conference here
A groundbreaking changing gender markings of University Diplomas
until recently all University diplomas were written using traditional male gender marking. From now on our graduates can choose the gender marking of their diploma (including non-binary options).
Working group dedicated to promoting gender equity in the faculties of social sciences and the humanities
The presidential advisor, Prof. Shulamit Almog held a working group meeting with steering team’s members prof. Irit Akirav (Social Sciences) and Prof. Ruth Amar (Humanities) to discuss new ways of promoting gender equity in the two largest faculties, which make up about two-thirds of the universities faculty.
METIS Project – Personal introduction meetings with new faculty members
The presidential advisor is conducting personal introduction meetings with all new women faculty members in the Universty.
In the photo: Prof. Sulamit Almog with Dr. Sheli Ingdao, who joined the school of social work at the faculty of Welfare Sciences and Health Studies. We wish her and all the others the best of luck in their new positions!
First meeting of the steering team (2021-2022)
The gender equity’s Unit steering team held it’s first meeting for the current academic year. The meeting addressed this year’s goals and future activities. We are looking forward to a significant and fruitful year.
METIS Project – Introductory meeting and workshop for new faculty members
The Gender Equity Unit hosted an introductory meeting and workshop for faculty members who recently joined the university. the workshop focused on barriers and challenges women face in their academic career. (31/7/2021)
Inauguration of the Gender Equity Unit
The gender Equity Unit held a start-up meeting, attended by the President of the University, Prof. Ron Rubin, members of the steering team and the Gender Equity team.