A career in academia? The "Fem4Scholar" mentoring programme offers seminars and workshops to support female students who are considering a career in the humanities.
Staying at university after your Master's degree, pursuing your own research project and perhaps even completing a doctorate at the end? Many students think about this during their Bachelor's or Master's degree. But quite a few discard this idea - for example because they think they are not good enough, the career opportunities are unclear or they simply don't know how to go about it.
Carla Schiever wants to remove these mental hurdles. She holds a doctorate in philosophy and teaches at the Institute of Music and the Institute of Philosophy. She launched the "Fem4Scholar" mentoring programme in the summer semester: In a series of seminars, she aims to introduce female students from School III - School of Linguistics and Cultural Studies and School IV - School of Humanities and Social Sciences to an academic career. And equip them with the knowledge that is important when deciding to pursue such a career.
Promoting potential and boosting self-confidence
Schriever made a conscious decision to limit the seminar series to female students of these subjects: "The entire STEM programme also focuses on women. And I would like to join in to show this: This imbalance also exists in the humanities." Especially as women are underrepresented in the teaching staff of these subjects: While more women than men tend to study humanities or cultural studies, this ratio changes at the higher career levels. Here, women continue to come up against the much-cited "glass ceiling" - a metaphor for invisible factors and processes that prevent women from reaching management positions despite being highly qualified.
In order to encourage female students to pursue a career in academia against this background, Schriever believes it is essential to boost their self-confidence: "Many still think they have to be approached by lecturers to see if they are interested in doing a doctorate," she says. Many don't have the confidence to take the initiative and express their interest themselves.
Learning by doing
This is where Schriever comes in with mentoring: "Of course there are women who simply do it and there are also men who don't have the confidence to do it," says Schriever. Although the latter cannot take part in her seminar, they can take part in a series of workshops that the young scientist also offers: These are open to all interested parties and delve deeper into individual aspects of the seminars. Both formats are geared towards the needs of cultural scientists and humanities scholars. A doctorate or the acquisition of third-party funding generally works very differently here than in the natural sciences, for example. "They have completely different methods," says Schriever.
Schriever has chosen the content of the seminar so that students learn as much practical information as possible: How do I develop a research focus? How do I apply for a scholarship? And where can I apply for funding? "It's not just about theoretical knowledge. The participants should actually take the individual steps. They should think about a research focus, then write an abstract for this and apply to an upcoming conference." The programme also includes giving presentations and organising a joint symposium. At the end of the programme, the students not only gain a lot of experience, but also materials that they can build on - from their academic CV to their application photo.
Facilitating access
Schriever attaches particular importance to low-threshold access to the individual topics. After all, the programme is aimed not only at Master's students but also Bachelor's students. "Even those who ultimately decide against an academic career can benefit from the skills they acquire, as these can also be useful in other areas," says Schrievers. Students who are actually interested in pursuing a doctorate can take the next steps by taking advantage of the university's wide range of programmes to promote young talent - such as the Graduate School for Social Sciences and Humanities (3GO), the Self-Education Research Training Group or the Graduate Academy.
Schriever is convinced that projects such as mentoring will help to change students' mindsets. She hopes that pressure from below will help to raise the glass ceiling in the long term.
