Of mice and men - gender equity in science

 
 
 

In the afternoon the various aspects of the meeting were reinforced in three workshops. Michael Gümbel analysed the career trajectories of the participants in his workshop "Career development in science", and showed both obstacles and chances which can occur during individual careers. He demonstrated how male dominated cultures can make it hard for everyone - not only women - deviating from male stereotypes to obtain leading positions. But he also highlighted strategies to overcome these obstacles. Hereby it became clear that there are still many structural and systemic changes that are necessary. On the other hand each and everyone can positively influence their own career by challenging their own behavioural patterns.

A similar topic was dissected in Walle Gairings workshop "Leadership in the ivory tower", which in particular looked at the topic of leadership in the university context. She also included a lot of interaction and exercises. Striking questions such as "What is your motivation to aspire a leading position?" elicited interesting gender-specific differences - and equalities - and confronted many participants with the insight that they had never asked themselves this question before.