The Joint Science Conference (GWK) recently published the "25th Update to the Data (2019/2020) on Women in Higher Education Institutions and Non-Academic Research Establishments".
This year's report shows once more that the proportion of female scientists has increased, both at universities and non-academic research institutions, but progress in all areas has been slow and the need for action remains.
When compared to data from the last ten years (2009-2019), the updated data does show an increase, but a moderate one. For example, from 2009 to 2019, the percentage of women from the total number
- of first-time enrollments increased from 49.9 percent to 51.8 percent,
- of academic degrees increased from 51.4 percent to 52.0 percent,
- of doctorates from 44.1 percent to 45.4 percent, and
- of habilitations from 23.8 percent to 31.9 percent.
However, this also demonstrates that the proportion of women decreases with each qualification and career level after graduation. Due to this "leaky pipeline", considerable female qualification potential is lost for the scientific sector.
Although the proportion of female professors at universities has also risen steadily between 2009 and 2019, from 18.0 percent to 25.6, there is still room for improvement. A differentiated analysis by pay grade shows that the higher the pay grade, the lower the proportion of women.
The overall proportion of female W1 professors at universities is 47.0 percent, while the proportion of C3/W2 professors is 26.3 percent, and C4/W3 professors is just 21.2 percent. Page 2/2 of the GWK report analyzes not only the percentage of women in universities, but also in non-academic research institutions.
In comparison, the proportion of women in leadership positions at the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the Helmholtz Association, the Max Planck Society and the Leibniz Association rose from 11.0 percent to 20.5 percent in the period from 2010 to 2020. This shows that the proportion of women at such institutions increased at a similar rate as at universities but remains at a lower level overall, and with organization-specific differences.
Accompanying the data update is a special evaluation by the Center of Excellence Women and Science CEWS, which provides a review of 25 years of gender equality in science to mark the publication of the 25th data update. Overall, the GWK's current data collection shows that there is still an urgent need for action both in the higher education sector and in non-academic research institutions, in order to expediate the implementation of equal opportunities at the structural level and thus achieve a higher proportion of women in leadership positions. In this context, important cornerstones for increasing the proportion of women in positions of responsibility and decision-making roles in the science sector, are the gender equality standards adopted by the German Research Foundation in 2008 and confirmed in 2017 and based on the so-called cascade model; and the agreement pertaining to flexible target quotas in non-academic research institutions, undertaken on the initiative of the GWK.
The Female Professors Program of the German federal and state governments, which entered into a third program phase in 2018, is an example of a successful specific funding measure aimed at promoting equal opportunities in the science sector. Corresponding funding programs in the federal states share this common goal. The GWK has been preparing these data updates since 1989 and they are made available to the public on a regular basis. These reports are indicators of what has been achieved and thus also provide a statistical basis for further gender equality policy measures. The GWK is the only body in the national science sector that continuously and systematically gathers data on the proportion of women at all levels in universities and non-academic research institutions and presents them transparently in the form of regular data updates.
The report "Women in Higher Education Institutions and Non-academic Research Establishments" is now available as a PDF download [de] for the period 2019/2020, as well as in printed form as issue 75 of the “Materialien der GWK [de]”, available from the GWK office.