It is funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) and the European Social Fund (ESF).

The Project:

In the past two decades the participation of women in STEM-fields has constantly increased. Nevertheless, the ‘glass ceiling’ still hinders the participation and the professional advancement of women across all disciplines and occupational areas.

With the research project genderDynamics we aim to understand the mechanisms, by which women are both in- and excluded from science, as embedded in current structural transformations taking place within the scientific fields. In the case of physics we seek to analyze these changes with particular regard to the interactions between professional cultures, different types of research organizations and policy-governed changes within science. Which patterns can be observed and to what extent do they affect gender relations?

The project is divided into three sub-projects, each focusing on a different institutional setting and on its specific entanglement with organizational structures and professional cultures. Case studies for each of the sub-projects will be carried out in German universities, extra-university institutes and new research entities e.g. excellence clusters. The case studies will be further examined with respect to their local institutional contexts and their coverage of physical research fields. Based on these results, approaches to implement equal opportunities in science will be reviewed contributing to novel initiatives in the scientific practices of the analyzed disciplinary work places. 

Note on funding

genderDynamics is a collaboration between the Free University Berlin and Technical University Berlin. It is funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) and the European Social Fund (ESF) by the European Union (Project Number: 01FP121235-38).