Over the last 10 years at the University of Bonn, females have made up 50-60% of enrollment into Bachelors, Masters, and PhD programs. This is a drastic contrast to the 10% of females found at the level of University Professor.
We are aware of the challenges facing women in academia and are dedicated to take internal measures to recruit and promote excellent female scientists at all career levels.Therefore we have appointed a Gender Equality committee LIMES-WiS (Women in Science) to help provide support for LIMES staff and students to make the transition from undergraduate training, to more independent positions and senior research roles. 

The first initiative of LIMES-WiS was to initiate a bi-monthly seminar series. Seminars would highlight scientific presentations from excellent female scientists at all career levels, and promote inter-institutional scientific exchange and mentoring. Career planning, grant writing, and soft-skill workshops and seminars would also feature in addition to the scientific seminar series.

Regular get-togethers of female scientists after the seminars should help to identify and enforce suitable measures for child-care and a stable work-life balance. We hope that such a forum will foster scientific and personal exchange to improve career development among women, and ultimately help to address the gender imbalance at senior levels.

First LIMES-WiS seminar: Monday, November 25, 2013 at 3pm, “Karriereplanung in der Forschung” (Dr. Katrin Hahlen, Forschungsdezernat Abt. 7.1)