Support factors in scientific mobility of Israeli female STEM researchers

Scholarship on scientific mobility has long emphasized the structural and agentic difficulties faced by female researchers, especially in the male-dominated STEM disciplines. With notable exceptions, studies ignored the experience of early career female academics who travel internationally for professional reasons, including the various factors of support, which they draw on before and during relocation. This article examines narratives of Israeli PhD graduates who pursue an international postdoctoral fellowship (IPDF). Based on interviews with 24 female researchers in STEM disciplines who took up IPDF in North American universities, it explores the main support factors they draw on and examine their role in the relocation process. Our findings suggest that three factors were particularly instrumental; first, the support of their partners or husbands and, sometimes, their nuclear families, who were willing to make personal, social, and professional sacrifices for the mobility to materialize. Second, the support, both emotional and material, of their (post)doctoral advisors, and other academic colleagues, in their home or host institutions. Finally, prior experience - or familiarity - with academic or other forms of international mobility, were also salient. By analyzing the role of factors, which researchers rely on prior to and during their professional voyage, the study contributes to the field of academic mobility, nuancing the practical experience of ‘travelling’ (female) scientists. In so doing, it contributes to a better understanding of the pivotal, yet understudied, role of partners, families, and colleagues in academic mobilities, which could potentially reduce gender-based gaps in professional trajectories of early career scientists.