Beller Lectureship: The Status of Women Physicists in Egypt and the Middle East*

\textbf{The present report presents a survey of }\textbf{the Status of Women Physicists in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.} \textbf{In Egypt, gender balance over 3years (2013-2016), is found for B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. physics students at Ain Shams, Sohag, Alexandria and Kafr El Sheikh} \textbf{universities. However, Academic staff positions show a gender imbalance at the level of full professor. Women hold only 15{\%} of full professor positions, while they account for 42{\%} of associate professors, 39{\%} of lecturers, 52{\%} of assistant lecturers, and 49{\%} of teaching assistants. } \textbf{In }\textbf{Morocco, the female population in science and Physics has been growing in the last decade.} \textbf{However, the research population is dominated by men and the percentage of women researchers in higher education is declining, }\textbf{Some universities are becoming aware of these inequalities and are trying to to get involved in gender projects and programs such as the SHEMERA}$^{\mathrm{\mathbf{1}}}$\textbf{ project) and the TARGET}$^{\mathrm{\mathbf{2}}}$\textbf{ project. } \textbf{In Tunisia,~ }\textbf{women make up 76{\%} of PhD graduates in life sciences but just 41{\%} in engineering}\textbf{, according to the team led by Professor Sihem Jaziri at the EU's }\textbf{SHEMERA}$^{\mathrm{\mathbf{1}}}$\textbf{ project. Tunisia has more than 55{\%} Women as researchers. The country also struggles with unemployment~:19{\%} of male graduates are unemployed and 41{\%} of female graduates are without a job.} \section{References } \label{sec:references} \begin{enumerate} \item \textbf{Final Report of the }\textbf{SHEMERA project: www. shemera.eu} \item \textbf{Target: Taking a Reflexive Approach to Gender Equality for Institutional Transformation} \end{enumerate} \underline {\textbf{http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/210054\textunderscore en.html}}