Academy and Studying in Germany

At universities in Germany women occupying professorial posts are indeed few and far between. That is why the universities decided to do something about it – in July 2008 at the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (abbreviated DFG, German Research Foundation) a large majority of them advocated the introduction of “research-oriented gender mainstreaming”. Just how effective however would a voluntary obligation like this be in the field of research? Might not a system of quotas be better?

Ruth Stock-Homburg is a mother of two – and two years ago, after just turning 33, she became Germany’s youngest professor of business studies. Ever since, her textbook career has had to serve as proof that it really is true – a woman can combine having children with a career.

Unfortunately Ruth Stock-Homburg, who had to re-sit her Abitur (German qualification for university entrance), is more or less the exception to the rule. At the moment only one in six of Germany’s 38,000 professorships is held by a woman. The chances of women getting a chair at the moment however are in fact better than ever – by the year 2014 more than a third of all professors will have retired. If things however stay the way they are at the moment, it does not look as if women are going to benefit from this in any big way. Women account for half of all students and make up 40 per cent of those students who have earned a PhD. Among professors however less than one in ten is a woman.

Little networking, hardly any role models

These days women are hardly ever confronted with blatant discrimination, says Dorothea Jansen, scientific coordinator of ProFil – a women’s advancement program in Berlin. Yet the roles women are expected to play are still a hindrance to their careers. Matthias Kleiner, President of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), further adds, “Women are often put off by the ‘man-made’ career mechanisms prevailing in universities.” Male researchers often push their way forward. The burden of combining research with bringing up a family often weighs on the woman’s shoulders alone. This is emphasised by Hildegard Macha, Head of the Gender Zentrum Augsburg (GZA) and herself one of the few female professors – of course in a typical “woman’s subject” – educational science. She said herself that it was only possible for her to follow a career because her husband “really did take on 50 per cent of the work involved bringing up their children and running their home.”

Many faculties do indeed complain that when it comes to appointment procedures there were simply not enough female applicants on the scene. Susanne Schattenberg, a 38-year-old Professor of Eastern European History at the University of Bremen laments the fact that women do not have the necessary networks to advance their careers. She also said there were hardly any role models, “Most of the female professors I encountered at the beginning of my studies were of the ‘mothering’ kind or were ‘wincing wallflowers’.”

Recommendations or a tough system of quotas?

Family-friendly set-ups, better childcare, more telecommuting or working from home – is all that going to make things better? No, says Ruth Stock-Homburg. In her opinion women are often their own worst enemy when it comes to getting ahead. “It starts with the mind-set,” she says. Many female students and ongoing PhDs lack a sense of strategy when it comes to planning their careers. “I meet a lot of young women whose skills and abilities really impress me, but they reject any form of long-term planning. They often say that it is all so far off and that they do not want to plan that far ahead into the future.”

Whatever the reasons might be for this scarcity of women in top academic positions – nothing is going to change all by itself. Realising this, the Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (Association of Universities and other Higher Education Institutions in Germany) already submitted a recommendation on the advancement of women two years ago, in collaboration with the Wissenschaftsrat (Science Council) and the Bund-Länder-Kommission (Commission for Educational Planning and Research Promotion). At the DFG annual meeting in July 2008 the universities and research organisations voted with an overwhelming majority for a voluntary obligation to promote more equality. Even the DFG, as Germany’s largest research promotion organisation, envisages these recommendations, called “standards”, filling the universities themselves with new life. In more concrete terms this could mean – when it comes to nominating candidates for competitions or prize money, the Deans of the universities should make a special effort to promote qualified women, as was recommended by DFG President, Matthias Kleiner. “Women’s applications for new appointments often fail because the appointment commission is unaware of the fact that there are also outstanding females working in the field.”

Subtle pressure should do it

For Kleiner however it is first and foremost all about moral pressure. Even if on the surface nobody is prepared to admit that. This venture on the part of the DFG also implies the subtle threat that gender mainstreaming could become one of the criteria when it comes to dishing out research funding. So why not set up a system of quotas for women, as advocated by the former President of the DFG and present Secretary General of the European Research Council (ERC), Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, as well as by the President of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Jürgen Mlynek?

Matthias Kleiner dismisses this, “No, these standards are not going to lead to the introduction of quotas, no fixed quotas. They would not be sensitive to the special needs of the individual disciplines, subjects, faculties, of the individual universities and research institutions.” The road to equality is not only stony enough, but also long. In spring 2009 the universities are expected to announce the implementation of the plan and submit the first interim statements; it will not be until 2013 however that the DFG will consult on what these standards have actually achieved.