11.02.2025 – We celebrate today the 10th anniversary of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (IDWGS). This day was established by UNESCO to close the gender gap in academia, inspire girls to partake in science, supporting women’s advancement through targeted programs, and fostering inclusive environments that promote diversity and equity.
In Germany, women are 46% of all doctoral graduates, but only 28% of professorships are held by women. 1 Worldwide, still only one in three people in science is a woman.2 Thus women are still significantly underrepresented in science, often particularly true within STEM fields of research.
On the tenth anniversary of this important day, and as we reflect on 30 years since the Beijing Declaration, let’s help pave a path to STEM careers that women and girls deserve – and our world needs.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres
We see a need to change the way how academia tries to promote female scientist and girls enthusiastic about science. The Leopoldina has developed an approach to achieve gender equality in science parted into four categories: We have to change the structure of our institutions with more permanent positions, a more team-based thinking, and more appointments should be based on parity with the same salary offers given to men and women. We need to empower woman and support them in their academic careers while offering the possibilities to form a family. We should promote the visibility of women by compensating time spent for committee work and increase the financial pressure on conferences where female scientist are hardly present. Additional, a better documentation of developments and supporting systems is necessary to create a more targeted assistance. 3
The Bundesverband would like to support you as good as we can. Our equal opportunity office, lead by Maren Weissig, provides some opportunities to partake. Within our project „Conversations with PhD Candidates – Women discuss their ccience“ our equal opportunity office invites female PhD candidates to share their experiences, both pleasant and challenging. Another ongoing project, „Balanced PhD Journey“ aims to compile these insights into a resourceful knowledge base, and contributions are welcomed as part of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science initiative,, with all contributions anonymized. Therefore, feel free to utilize our worry box or write your message to Kontakt@promovierende.de.
- Gleichstellungsmonitor Wissenschaft und Forschung, 28. Datenfortschreibung (2022/2023), Gemeinsame Wissenschaftskonferenz, 2024. ↩︎
- UNESCO science report The race against time for smarter development, United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2021. ↩︎ - Women in science: developments and recommendations, German National Academy of Sciences, 2022. ↩︎
