Speaker
Description
Physics continues to be regarded as a male-dominated subject with a ‘leaky pipeline’ throughout the career progression – from the beginning of undergraduate studies right through to a professorship. Since 2021, the "Mehr für Physikstudentinnen" ("More (for) Female Physics Students") project at the Department of Physics and the Gender Equality Office at Marburg University has been addressing this issue: not through an overarching gender equality programme, but through subject-specific, low-threshold initiatives – funded by the Professorinnenprogramm 2030.
The project is based on three pillars: networking through informal activities such as ‘Women Physicists’ breakfasts, group climbing, barbecues and boat trips, and the joint development of exercise sheets or protocols; Enabling opportunities through themed excursions to research institutions such as ESA, GSI and DESY, participation in conferences, supplemented by ad hoc financial support; and Spotlighting through an annual alumna presentation and a continuous presence within the department.
To the best of our knowledge, ‘Mehr für Physikstudentinnen’ is therefore a pioneering project: to our knowledge, no other university has a comparable structure permanently embedded within a department. In its equality strategy (Gleichstellungskonzept für Parität), Marburg University has made a conscious decision not to pool resources exclusively at central level, but to invest specifically in department-specific equality work.
The poster presents the concept, formats and initial success factors, and invites discussion on the potential for transferring this model to other departments and campuses.
