Equal opportunities

Funds for gender equality and family-friendly measures were used to provide home office equipment to doctoral students who became parents (1 doctoral student and a postdoc in Berlin and a postdoc in Münster). Work at home allowed early career scientists who became parents to work on their projects outside of office hours and when daycare was not available. At WWU Münster, a part of TRR 170 funds allocated for these purposes were provided to a central account for gender equality measures. The measures supported by this central account include coaching and childcare as well as workshops on mentoring and collegial advice. The bundling of funds makes it possible to provide a greater variety of measures and promotes the networking of participants from different coordinated projects.

Fostering gender awareness. In order to support females to gain leading positions in science, awareness of how females think and act in career issues is important. Therefore, gender awareness workshops are planned for the third funding period and participation will be for all TRR 170 members. Furthermore, the TRR 170 website will inform about gender and family-friendly activities, and gender awareness and provide a best-practice manual.

The TRR 170 has adjusted its governance structure to include a Gender & Family panel because of increasing awareness of gender equality issues and how to reconcile career and family, particularly for early career researchers. In the current funding period, the Gender & Family panel supported several gender equality and family-friendly measures. It informed TRR 170 members about upcoming events that concern gender and family issues as well as inviting female
scientists to talk about their scientific careers and specific challenges they have encountered throughout their careers.

Summary of activities to measures of gender equality and family-friendliness