Women’s Day 2025 Event: Screening of the Film “The Milky Way”

12 March 2025

In addition to the film screening, a dialogue was held with Maya Fischer, the film’s Producer, an alumna of the School of Film and Television, Faculty of Arts, Tel Aviv University, and Yael Shoov, Film and Television Critic, an alumna of the Faculty of Humanity and Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, Tel Aviv University. The event was sponsored by Binyamina Winery.

From right to left: Maya Fischer, Dafna Meitar-Nechmad, Prof. Tova Milo and Sigalit Ben Hayoun

Among the alumni who participated in the event: Joel Bar-El – Founder of Trax, Nava Kazaz – Chief People Officer at Stratasys, Christina Hilou – Magistrate’s Court Judge, and many more.

Dafna Meitar-Nechmad mentioned that “In 2025, I’m unsure about the women’s equality, both in Israel and around the world. Although the women in Tel Aviv University hold very impressive achievements, with 2 Vice Presidents, a respectable number of female Deans, and many other women in key senior positions, unfortunately, this still doesn’t reflect the reality. According to the UN, if the current situation continues as it is, it will take us over 300 years to reach equality. According to the Equality Index and gender analysis on the budgets, the trend is clear, male budgeting is still dozens of times higher than female budgeting, even in areas that are indifferent to gender, there is still a gap in favor of men. And as we rise in salary levels and budgets for management, we’ll see more men in key positions. And, unfortunately, the word “Feminism” has also gotten a bad name. We need more women who will reach out, aspire and accept senior positions. Tel Aviv University is doing a great job of promoting women and advocating for equality for a better future for our girls and boys. We still have work to do!”

Prof. Tova Milo

Prof. Tova Milo said: “In the field of exact sciences, we see a clear trend: as you advance in your degrees, the number of female students decreases. Studies that have examined this phenomenon show that the main reasons for this are a sense of lack of belonging and a lack of sufficient exposure to women’s success stories in the field. Out of this need, the Ruth Rappaport “ExactShe” program was born – a mentoring community that allows female students to receive a mentor who’s an alumna that recently graduated. The goal of the program is to promote women in the faculties, to create a supportive community, and to connect them with role models. The program was very successful and even expanded to the Faculty of Engineering. This is an excellent model, and I also encourage the business sector to promote similar initiatives. The program is supported by many donors and helps to increase the number of female students in faculties where there is an obvious male majority.”