By Bayan Abusalameh

Sliman Mansour, The Immigrant, oil on canvas, 2017.

As I embarked on my undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at Birzeit University in 2014, I was struck by the under-representation of women in my field. In a class of over 70 students, I was one of just four women and faced persistent stereotypes and dismissive comments from both my peers and faculty members. Comments like like "That's not a career for girls" and "You'll be working in a garage your whole life’’ were normalised in the engineering culture. The competitive and high-pressure culture within the program also made it difficult for many students, to succeed. As a result, I became determined to advocate for increased representation of women in STEM and to pursue higher education.

However, when I later boarded on my PhD journey, I encountered a significant obstacle in securing funding for my studies. Despite reaching out to various institutes, grants, fellowships, and scholarships, I was unable to secure the necessary funds for tuition fees and living expenses. In an effort to raise the funds, I ultimately launched a crowdfunding campaign. The skepticism and criticism I faced during this process highlighted the myth of meritocracy in funding opportunities for researchers. Through my experience, I am led to question whether funding opportunities are truly designed to provide equal opportunities for male and female researchers, or if they are instead perpetuating systemic biases and inequalities. This is a topic that I intend to explore further in my research.

In Plato's book "The Republic," he posits that society can only achieve true harmony and progress when philosophers, who possess knowledge and wisdom, hold political power. He argues that until this occurs, political power and philosophy will remain separate and society will continue to suffer from various ills. This idea raises questions about whether our educational, funding, and government institutions are designed to align with this concept of individuals being ranked according to their inherent abilities and talents. Some may argue that in academia, meritocracy is held as a sacred principle. However, as we will explore further in this article, there are numerous misconceptions surrounding research and funding, as well as significant gender disparities present in academia. These issues call into question whether our institutions are truly promoting and utilizing the talents of all individuals, regardless of their inherent abilities, or if they are instead perpetuating systemic biases and inequalities.

The process of applying for a PhD in a STEM field typically begins with identifying a research opportunity at an academic institution. This can be done by searching for open positions on the institution's website, reaching out to potential supervisors, or networking with current or former graduate students. Once a research opportunity has been identified, the student must reach out to the senior researcher responsible for the project and express their interest in joining the team. The next step is typically an interview with the senior researcher, during which the student's qualifications, research experience, and fit with the project are evaluated. The senior researcher will then make the decision to approve or reject the student's application. However, this process becomes more complex when a student wishes to pursue an individual project. In this case, the student must find a researcher with expertise in their field of interest and secure funding independently.

When I chose to launch a crowdfunding campaign to fund my PhD, I often faced questions about why I didn't apply for fellowships instead. Funding for a PhD can come from a variety of sources, such as grants, government funds, and self-funding. However, the process of obtaining funding through these sources can be different for female researchers. As highlighted in the book "Invisible Women" by Caroline Criado Perez, studies from around the world have consistently shown that female students and academics are less likely to receive funding, be granted meetings with professors, be offered mentoring, or secure a job when compared to their male counterparts. This leads to under-representation of women in STEM fields, where few women are able to lead their own research. This disparity in funding opportunities for female researchers is a significant barrier that perpetuates the under-representation of women in STEM.

Applying for grants and fellowships can also be a time-consuming process, which can be a significant barrier for researchers, particularly for those with limited resources. The time required to complete an application can vary depending on a number of factors such as complexity of the application, amount of research required, availability of letters of recommendation, and number of revisions needed. Furthermore, networking and building relationships with potential collaborators and funding organizations can also take additional time. A survey conducted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2019 found that researchers spend an average of 15 hours per week on administrative tasks, including grant writing. Other reports suggest that researchers can spend anywhere from several hours to several weeks on the grant application process. This time commitment can be a significant burden for researchers, especially when considering the already demanding workload of conducting research and publishing papers.

The risk of rejection adds an additional layer of stress and uncertainty. I myself reached out to over one hundred institutes, fellowship programs, scholarship programs, and grants bodies designed to support STEM research. Out of the hundred I received thirty responses, and only three were able to help me secure funding for my first year. Dealing with rejection can be difficult, especially when it comes in succession. It takes a toll on one's motivation and confidence, and it can be especially hard to keep going when it feels like every door is closed. This was made even more challenging for me as I had to balance my full-time research and part-time job as a Graduate Teacher Assistant.

Securing funding for research is a significant accomplishment for researchers, but it is not the end of the journey. Many funding institutes impose restrictions on the research and its dissemination, which can limit the researcher's ability to fully explore their ideas. These restrictions can range from something as simple as including the funder's name on published papers, to more significant limitations such as not owning the intellectual property developed during the research. For PhD students, the situation can be even more complicated. While they typically own the copyright to their thesis, the intellectual property rights of their research are often held by the funding institutes or the universities they are affiliated with. This can prevent PhD students from commercializing their research findings and ideas, limiting the potential impact of their work. These restrictions can also prevent researchers from publishing their work in certain venues, and may limit the researcher's ability to continue their research in the future.

Self-funding a PhD through part-time work is an option for some candidates, but it is not without its challenges. The cost of one year of a PhD can be upwards of $50,000, divided between tuition fees and living expenses. One issue with this approach is that part-time work is often paid less per hour than full-time work. Additionally, high-level positions that offer job shares or flexible working hours are rare, so PhD students may have to work in jobs below their skill level in order to have the flexibility to study and work at the same time. This can be even more difficult for female researchers. In the UK, for example, the hourly pay gap between men and women working part-time is 32%. Using the median hourly pay for full-time employees at £14 per hour, and £9.12 per hour for part-time employees as an example, a part-time female researcher would have to work an average of 15 years to raise the required amount for four years of PhD.

Funding complications and biases can prevent female researchers from fully realizing the benefits of conducting their own research. This can result in female researchers not being able to publish papers, and having to fill the gap of wages with teaching tasks. This can lead to overworked female researchers. Plato's idea of a meritocratic society cannot be achieved when our systems deny female researchers equal opportunities. The question remains whether funding organizations are doing enough to support and motivate female researchers to pursue their own independent research projects, so that society can actually progress.