Grant amount
NIS 350,000
Cross-Sector Learning Group on Gender Equity in Excellence Tracks and in High-Tech Workplace
Cross-Sector Learning Group Focusing on Gender Equity in the Excellence Tracks in High School and in the High-Tech Workplace
Cross-Sector Learning Group Focusing on Gender Equity in the Excellence Tracks in High School and in the High-Tech Workplace
The “Startup Nation” is comprised mostly of men. Only 10% of the CEOs of startup companies, 16% of VC funds’ partners, 28% of the R&D engineers and 23% of the IDF’s tech positions are filled by women. The assumption is that education would be critical to changing this biased trend. In the recent decade, the endeavor to expand the circle of excellence in mathematics and science education has placed special emphasis on gender equality. Consequently, 50% of the high school graduates with five units in mathematics are female. Such result, however, has not yet been achieved with high school physics (40%) and computer science (34%), nor with middle school (female students are 40% of the excelling students in the PISA mathematics test) and in higher education (only 25% of engineers are women).
After reviewing the data, the government has now set specific gender targets as part of its new policy to increase tech-matriculation rates, from the current 7% of female students to 15% within the next five years. To incentivize schools, the policy encourages schools to open new excellence classes in which at least 50% are female students. This effort has better chances of success if it would be effectively coordinated between stakeholders from different government agencies, local authorities, universities, and high-tech companies, as well as with a wider support network of parents, teachers, and education organizations.
As part of our efforts to catalyze such collaboration, we approached the Appleseeds association. Appleseeds was founded by Leon Recanati and is now chaired by Yoram Ya’acovi, the former CEO of Microsoft R&D in Israel. Their expertise is with after school youth programs focusing on tech skills. In addition, in recent years they partnered with the government to become a convener of cross-sector collaboration on issues relating to human talent in the tech industry. For example, they created a learning network (“Anashim.il”) for professionals from government, high-tech, and education organizations. Appleseeds is a partner of the Trump Foundation and a receiver of a major grant to develop a self-learning platform for middle school students.
Appleseeds is now proposing to convene a collaborative cross-sector group that will focus on how to achieve greater gender equality in high-tech. The group will include members from education, the army, universities, and high-tech companies, as well as experts that would share best practices and effective methods. The group will be comprised of 70 members who will be invited to three in-depth workshops in which they will learn together and come up with joint recommendations. Their conclusions will be articulated in a position paper that will be disseminated among policy makers, as well as presented at a special conference and via a media campaign.
* The text above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation’s Board of Directors / Grant 518