Gender Equity – No Longer a Marginal Issue

A Podcast Featuring Dr. Ulrike Brands-Proharam Gonzalez

Copyright: © Dagmar Glauner Dr. Ulrike Brands-Proharam Gonzalez has been the Equal Opportunities Officer at RWTH Aachen University since 2011. Prior to that, she worked for many years at RWTH's International Office.

What has also changed about gender equity work, is that we say: We need international community members, we need people who are first-generation, who bring very different life experiences. Non-binary people also have a completely different view of things. And it is about using equal treatment for good to keep advancing our society.

Dr. Ulrike Brands-Proharam Gonzalez

This part of the podcast runs from 0:47 to 4:30 on YouTube.

Learn more on the pages of the RWTH Equal Opportunities Office

Women’s Career Lunch for Aspiring Women Architects

A Podcast Featuring Dr. Birgit Schillak-Hammers

Copyright: © Ivo Mayr Dr. Birgit Schillak-Hammers is a temporary academic councilor at the Chair of Art History at RWTH. Along with her colleague Frederike Eyhoff, she was responsible for the successful “Frauen am Reiff”exhibition at the Faculty of Architecture, among others.

The Women Career Lunch is, so to speak, the continuation of the project we had last year - Women at the Reiff - where we looked at the history of women at our faculty and also considered the current situation, all of which then culminated in an exhibition. While we explored this topic, we noticed that there is a great need, especially among female students, to focus more on this topic – women in the profession, women in architecture.

Dr. Birgit Schillak-Hammers

This part of the podcast runs from 4:43 to 8:38 on YouTube.

Learn more on the pages of the Chair of Art History

Do Women Have Misconceptions About STEM Subjects?

A Podcast Featuring Professor Christina Büsing First and Professor Erika Ábrahám Second

Copyright: © Martin Braun Dr. rer. nat. Christina Büsing holds the chair of the Combinatorial Optimization Teaching and Research Unit at RWTH. She is also a member of the Research Training Group UnRAVeL and the Collaborative Research Center of “Sparsity and Singular Structures.”

Professor Christina Büsing

The issues we want to solve have become so complex in this society that it is vital to bring together many different perspectives. And women, in particular, have entirely different approaches to questions and entirely different points of view.
That’s why we have to make sure that our teams are more diverse and that everyone has the opportunity to learn and grow in these teams the best they can.

Professor Christina Büsing

Copyright: © Peter Winandy Dr. Erika Ábrahám heads the teaching and research unit of “Theory of Hybrid Systems” at RWTH’s Computer Science Department. She is the Deputy Equal Opportunities Officer at RWTH and represents Germany in the EU COST Action Eugain.

Professor Erika Ábrahám

Unfortunately, we still have far too few women in computer science at all career levels. One of the reasons, I think, why we have relatively few women in STEM subjects is that girls – female high-school students – think very carefully about what they want to do and are very critical if something is not a 100 percent fit. Because they often have a false impression of STEM subjects, especially technical subjects, they often decide not to study this subject, which is a pity. As Ms. Büsing said, it is such a complex issue.

Professor Erika Ábrahám

This part of the podcast runs from 14:12 to 21:02 on YouTube.

Further Links

UnRAVeL Research Training Group at RWTH Aachen University

Combinatorial Optimization Teaching and Research Unit at RWTH Aachen University

Teaching and Research Unit of the Theory of Hybrid Systems at RWTH Aachen University

EU COST Action EUGAIN (European Network for Gender Balance in Informatics)

Developing Technology in a Way That Is Socially Responsible and Inclusive Thanks to Different Gender and Diversity Perspectives

A Podcast Featuring Professor Leicht-Scholten

Copyright: © Wisam Zureik Dr. phil. Carmen Leicht-Scholten aims to bridge the gender gap in her role as chair of the Gender and Diversity in Engineering Research Group at the RWTH Faculty of Civil Engineering. She also works at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. This is the only

One important facet of the issue is that in Germany, we still have a hard time reaching equity and are stuck discussing the percentages of women. At the same time, in many other countries, it is already state of the art to say: “We are looking at the issue on a substantive level.” Technology development must be inclusive, and excellent research should be non-discriminatory and truly socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable because these are the challenges we face. And for that to happen, gender and diversity perspectives must be considered.

Professor Leicht-Scholten

This part of the podcast runs from 21:26 to 25:26 on YouTube.

Learn more on the webpages of the RWTH Gender and Diversity in Engineering Research Group

Learn more about the German Accreditation Council here