Gender Equality Office

Equality and equal opportunities

The Gender Equality Office supports and advises the Gender Equality Officer and the university management on the implementation of the statutory gender equality mandate.

Men and women shall have equal rights.

Art. 3 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany

This document is not barrier-free. If you have any questions about the contents, please contact us via Email.

Even today the aspirations of the Basic Law and the reality of our society are not coextensive in all areas. The University of Stuttgart has undertaken the goal of achieving equal opportunities for men and women in university studies and science. Different players of all genders are working on developing, implementing, monitoring, and optimizing strategic concepts and support measures. In this context, the Gender Equality Officer and the Gender Equality Office perform an advisory function and stimulate development of the entire university regarding equality with their own projects.

The Gender Equality Office bears responsibility for the category “gender” in the context of the University of Stuttgart’s diversity activities. For this purpose, the concept designates an individual’s social gender as distinct from biological sex.

Work Focus and Services

We actively involve ourselves in developing a gender-equal University of Stuttgart and to this end bring our expertise to bear on decisions and concepts by the Rectorate, the University Council, the Senate and numerous other committees. In addition, we counsel relatives and members of the university on various topics. With services and projects geared to the life cycle of girls and women we contribute to implementing equal opportunities at our university. Here are the key areas we focus on in our work:

Our goal is to implement the self-evident integration of equal opportunities for men and women in all areas of our university. To achieve this goal, strategic concepts are as much needed as control mechanisms and routinely reviewing progress. The following activities contribute to this end:

  • Development of the equality plan
  • Integration of equality into the strategic concepts of the university as a whole
  • Development of models to assess equality successes and for managing activities in light of the DFG's research-oriented gender equality standards
  • Integration of gender in Quality Development and Management in collaboration with the university’s competent authorities
  • Rendering advice and support for integrating gender aspects in teaching content, methods, and didactics
  • Establishment of a gender culture by mediating gender skills to all members of the University of Stuttgart
  • Continually evaluating statistical data on women’s shares in studies and science (gender reporting)

Report of the Equal Opportunity Officer 2017-2018 [de]

  • Assisting those responsible for integrating equality goals in routine planning and control processes (gender controlling)

Residing in one of Europe’s best-performing industrial hubs, the University of Stuttgart takes responsibility for women’s participation in developing new technology in our society. As a talent incubator for future engineers, but also other scientists of all genders, it has a special obligation to promote is own scientific talent. This means especially promoting women and increasing the number of female professors. It is not enough to simply recruit highly qualified female scientists for the University of Stuttgart. Instead, the goal must be to induce them to stay at our university for the long term. We foster this through the following actions:

  • Active support during the appointment procedure from the Gender Equality Officer
  • Guaranteeing gender-equal appointment procedures with the help of the rules provided in the appointments manual of the University of Stuttgart [de] and raising the awareness of the Gender Bias in appointment procedures (Online Tutorial on Gender Bias in Appointment Procedures)
  • Professionalization of the staff selection process in order to foster equal opportunities and to make the process transparent
  • Motivation for actively recruiting [de] female scientists for professorships and other scientific positions
  • Integration of gender in concepts of personnel development as well as through the Mentoring Program for Women in Studies and Research
  • Integration of gender awareness and gender skills in the management culture
  • Integration of gender topics in offerings of advanced and postgraduate education

For a long time, gender issues have played a major role in DFG, BMBF und EU funding framework but also with other outside funders. The Gender Consulting Service of the Gender Equality Office provides support for:

The University of Stuttgart engages at various points not only in the life cycle of girls and women for the advancement of equal opportunities and equality but also in the society at large. The Gender Equality Office has initiated the following projects and measures to this end:

  • Raising the level of female students in STEM subjects with projects like Girls’ Day [de] and TryScience [de]
  • Networking and advanced education of female STEM students with the help of the spring high school meccanica feminale [de]
  • Promoting female students with leadership skills in STEM subjects with the Femtec.Careerbuilding Programm
  • Raising the women’s share of jobs among doctoral students at the University of Stuttgart with the project Talents for Doctorates
  • Targeting support for female students and researchers with the Mentoring Program for Women in Studies and Research
  • Access to internships, dissertations, and doctoral topics in small and medium-sized companies with the PraktikumsInfoBörse [de]

The University of Stuttgart puts special emphasis on supporting its students and staff to the greatest extent possible in balancing studies and work with family life. Since 2003, it has implemented family-supportive measures and is a certified family-friendly university since 2012. Uni & Family Service stands ready to help.

The female staff of the Gender Equality Office counsel students and scientist of the University of Stuttgart on a confidential basis concerning the following topics. Please contact us.

  • Shaping your own scientific career
  • Integrating gender justice in your own area of responsibility (gender mainstreaming)
  • Possibilities for grants in university studies and research
  • Conflicts in the university environment
  • Sexual discrimination, harassment and violence

Cooperations

Implementing the equality mandate is a task for society at large. Hence, the Gender Equality Officer and the Gender Equality Office act not only on matters concerning the University of Stuttgart but also engage in multiple ways in a framework of cooperations and networks.

Projects of the Gender Equality Office are represented in various networks and the office actively participates in these networks.

The Gender Equality Officer and Office are active members of the following networks:

Statutory and University Policy Foundations

Information on the statutory and university policy foundations for equality work at the University of Stuttgart are as follows:

Contact

This image shows Beate Langer

Beate Langer

 

Head of uniqUS

This image shows Grazia Lamanna

Grazia Lamanna

Dr.

Gender Equality Officer

To the top of the page