Last year, the University of Bremen participated with great success in the Female Professors Program of the federal and state governments. The Joint Science Conference particularly praised the equality concept. This means that the University of Bremen is now officially recognized as an “Equality-Strong University”. The University of Bremen was able to impress with its approaches in the area of recruiting female professors, offering gender-equal career development, summer schools for female engineers and computer scientists, and its creative communication strategies.
Distinction Creates Momentum for Gender Policy
“It remains an important and challenging task to implement gender equality at universities, said Dr. Mandy Boehnke, the University of Bremen’s Vice President for International Affairs, Academic Qualification, and Diversity at the award ceremony held at Bremen City Hall on March 17. “We are delighted to receive the award. It gives us the momentum to continue with our ambitious and diverse gender policy. The University of Bremen also believes in a sophisticated interplay between anti-discrimination, diversity, and gender policy.”
In addition to the University of Bremen, Bremen City University of Applied Sciences and Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences were also successful. The Senator for the Environment, Climate, and Science, Kathrin Moosdorf, commented: “I am delighted that three of our universities now bear the title ‘Equality-Strong University.’ This success underpins our claim to think holistically about science and gender equality is a mark of quality. It is extremely important that universities, like all of us, recognize this. I am therefore very pleased that Bremen's universities are actively involved in breaking down barriers for women in science and promoting greater equality.”
The Female Professor Program
The Female Professors Program is the central instrument of the Federal Government and the federal states to promote gender equality at universities. The program aims to dynamically increase the proportion of women in top academic positions towards parity. Currently, only a few women reach highly paid positions in academia because many female scientists drop out on the long road there and are unable to pursue their career (this is a so-called “leaky pipeline”). The 2030 Female Professors Program aims to counteract this by supporting female scientists on their way to a lifetime professorship, thus keeping them in the scientific system. At the same time, the gender equality structures at universities are strengthened by specific projects, e.g. in the area of gender-equitable human resources development or academic career advice for young female scientists. The program has been running since 2008. So far, over 850 professorships have been supported throughout Germany.
Further Information:
