Women Have Already Conquered Physics, Now Academia Must Stop Losing Them | Prof. Avi Domb

Prof. Avi Domb argues that women have already achieved success in physics, with nearly 50% participation in the Olympiad, but academia must retain them in advanced stages. He proposes dedicated scholarships and adapting promotion tracks, emphasizing that this is a national interest given the shortage of scientists.

In an opinion article, Prof. Avi Domb argues that while women have already achieved impressive results in physics, including a participation rate of nearly 50% in the national physics Olympiad, the main challenge has shifted to retaining women in academia and research. He identifies the difficulty in advanced degrees and experimental research, which require years of continuity and daily work in laboratories, often overlapping with pregnancy and childbirth years. The solution, he says, is not affirmative action but fixing the incentive mechanism: public funding of dedicated scholarships for women and adapting promotion tracks to life realities, while evaluating researchers based on the quality and impact of their publications, not just their number. He stresses that this is a national interest, as Israel faces a shortage of researchers and engineers, and every female researcher who drops out is a loss to academia and industry.