Supporting women
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Supporting women
The University of Oldenburg was the first university in Lower Saxony to establish a women’s equality office in 1987. Over the past 35 years, efforts to improve equal opportunities at the University of Oldenburg have scored a number of successes. For example, the university has been successfully participating in the Federal Government’s Programme for Women Professors since 2008 and is committed to the German Research Foundation’s (DFG) research-oriented gender equality standards. In 2013, the university was ranked in the highest achievable category for the implementation of the DFG’s research-oriented gender equality standards. After several successful repeat audits, the University of Oldenburg was officially designated a family-friendly university on a permanent basis. In 2018, the University of Oldenburg’s vision on equal opportunities was positively evaluated in the third phase of the Programme for Women Professors. An overview of key events and achievements is available here (in German).
The Central Equal Opportunities Officer supports women in the worlds of academia and education, technology and administration.
Individual guidance
The central equal opportunities officer provides individual support for women at the University of Oldenburg:
- She advises female students, graduates and doctoral candidates on planning their careers.
- She arranges coaching for female academics in preparation for appointment procedures.
- She advises women who feel disadvantaged or discriminated against in their workplace at the university.
- She advises and supports the equal opportunities officers at the Schools, administration departments and university-wide institutions.
If you would like to make an appointment to chat to the equal opportunities officer, please send an email to .
Strategic university development and quality assurance
The Central Equal Opportunities Officer is involved in development planning and structural decisions at the strategic level and evaluates the results of their implementation, e.g.:
- University-wide equality plan, university development plan, target agreements
- Further development of procedures for mainstreaming gender equality in university controlling processes (science, teaching, administration)
- The DFG’s research-oriented gender equality standards
- University policies on gender equality, such as guidelines for appointment management, recruitment policy, guidelines on sexual discrimination and violence.
List of the relevant University of Oldenburg strategic documents
Advocacy and networking
The Central Equal Opportunities Officer represents the interests of women at the University of Oldenburg and promotes networking among women by:
- Providing guidance and support to and coordinating the Schools’ Equality and Diversity Officers.
- Advocating women’s interests in staffing and appointment procedures.
- Organising coaching sessions and networking opportunities to help prepare for appointment procedures.
- Producing information and writing contributions on gender equality efforts.
Careers opportunities
The Central Equal Opportunities Officer provides support for women throughout their careers by:
- Developing concepts for informational activities and programmes aimed at female pupils, students and doctoral candidates, in particular for career paths in STEM subjects (Mathematics, Computing Science, Natural and Technical Sciences); assisting with the Lower Saxony Girls’ and Boys’ Day.
- Developing a concept for cross-school mentoring for all qualification levels.
- Collaborating on the development of specific programmes for science-related training for women.
Equality in research and teaching
The Central Equal Opportunities Officer promotes the inclusion of the topic of “gender” in research and teaching by:
- Implementing screening procedures for funding instruments of individual subjects, methods and theories of women’s and gender studies in teaching and research.
- Conceptualising and initiating the “Helene Lange Prize for Young Female Scientists”, which has been awarded annually by the university in cooperation with the EWE Foundation since 2009.
- Introducing supporting measures to facilitate interaction between the academic community and interested members of the public on key research fields at the University of Oldenburg, taking into account innovative issues such as gender research.