Measures in the Area Gender
Structural Measures
Office for Gender and Diversity
Established in April 2008, the Office for Gender and Diversity is the strategic control department for equal opportunity and diversity. Its main task is to advise the Rectorate in a strategic capacity on all decision-making, planning, implementation, and assessment processes at the university on the topic of equal opportunity and diversity and to prepare concepts and strategies, instruments, and practicable measures for this purpose. The basis for the office’s work is the Equal Opportunity Plan for the Years 2009–2014, which sets thematic priorities for the next five years. These overarching goals are operationalized according to the SMART principle and concretized in yearly plans.
Permanent Senate Commission for Equal Opportunity
It is necessary for both women and men to participate in and shape equal opportunity work. Hence, the Senate resolved in October 2008 to rename the Permanent Senate Commission for the Promotion of Female Researchers and Students to the Permanent Senate Commission for Equal Opportunity. At the same time, the responsibilities and organizational profile of the commission were revised and it was given additional members. Further support came from the introduction of administrative services for the commission in the central university administration – a service also provided to the other Senate commissions. The Office for Gender and Diversity has assumed this function. Moreover, for the first time since the establishment of the commission, the chair is not delegated to a member of the commission but rather is entrusted to a member of the Rectorate, namely the vice rector. The primary task of the Senate commission is to provide advice and guidance in the implementation of equal opportunity measures at the University of Freiburg. In addition, the commission selects the winners of the Bertha Ottenstein Prize awarded each year by the Senate.
“Family-Friendly University” Work Group
Established in 2007, the Family-Friendly University Work Group is responsible for the strategic coordination of all measures for improving the compatibility of family and career or studies. In order to promote widespread acceptance of the goal of a “family-friendly university,” the permanent members collaborate with further relevant individuals in planning and implementing measures, including representatives from the faculties and departmental heads from areas like construction, human resources, or the libraries. The work group has the task of evaluating the family-friendliness of all work and study conditions at the University of Freiburg and initiating concrete measures for achieving a better work-family balance on the basis of these evaluations. The work group is chaired by the head of administration; administrative assistance is provided by the Family Service.
“Human Resources Development” Work Group
The Rectorate resolved in November 2008 to introduce a systematic strategy for human resources development at the University of Freiburg, beginning with a pilot phase in the central administration. A work group led by the head of administration was established for this purpose. Also directly involved in the group are the staff equal opportunity representative and the Office for Gender and Diversity. The work group was commissioned to develop a comprehensive, i.e. gender- and diversity-sensitive, concept for human resources development with the following priorities: the introduction of employee meetings, executive development, further training and qualification, schedules for promotions, and adequate consideration of the social environment, particularly with regard to work-family balance. The concept “Human Resources Development. Pilot Phase in the Central Administration in the Years 2009–2011” was passed by the Rectorate in April 2009.
Strategic Measures
Code of Practice for Professorial Appointments at the University of Freiburg
The appointment procedure is a key instrument for realizing equal opportunity in the research sector. As the structural planning of the University of Freiburg shows, 71 appointment procedures – as well as an additional 17 at the Faculty of Medicine – will need to be conducted between 2009 and 2014 due to retirement alone. In order to use professorial appointment procedures as an effective instrument to achieve an increase in the proportion of women in top positions, the Rectorate has developed a code of practice designed to improve the gender-sensitivity of appointment procedures.
Equal Opportunity Consulting
In 2008 the DFG introduced equal opportunity funding to provide another system of incentives for launching joint projects. This also worked as an additional catalyst at the University of Freiburg, since competent gender consulting and in-depth knowledge of equal opportunity issues are now required for the application process. The Rectorate entrusted the Office for Gender and Diversity with this task in 2009. The office now advises research institutes on formulating and structuring proposals for gender equality measures in their applications for research funding, determining which measures are appropriate for the project, aligning the planned measures with the university’s equal opportunity goals and integrating them into the university’s overall equal opportunity strategy, finding partners to help the applicants organize and implement the measures (e.g., Family Service), and conducting routine quality assurance checks and monitoring. This form of in-house consulting brings the needs of the university’s research networks into line with university-wide objectives and gives the Rectorate a professional means of controlling the development of equal opportunity initiatives.
Equal Opportunity Controlling
In 2009 the Rectorate began conducting strategic meetings with each of the faculties at regular intervals. The purpose of these meetings is to discuss plans for the strategic development of the faculties as described in their structural and developmental plans, including core domains like instruction, research, professorial appointments and human resources planning, infrastructure, and the development of the proportion of women. The Rectorate uses these meetings to discuss the faculties’ strengths and weaknesses and their existing or planned priorities in instruction and research as well as to identify the most important fields of action. The inclusion of equal opportunity at the meetings underlines its relevance and its status as a cross-cutting topic and also opens up the possibility for the Rectorate to develop options for tackling existing challenges together with the representatives of the faculties.
Performance-Based Allocation of Funds
As part of the recent restructuring of the entire system of performance-based allocation of funds, the Rectorate resolved on 9 February 2011 to increase the proportion of performance-based funding for equal opportunity from 10% to 15% and to place special emphasis on the equal opportunity indicator “female habilitation candidates.” Since there is – in contrast to the situation at the doctoral level – still far too little funding for females working on habilitation projects (or comparable projects), this is an area in need of special attention. In addition to the indicators “female doctoral candidates/habilitation candidates,” the university will also offer incentives to increase the proportion of female professors at the individual faculties.
Training for Equal Opportunity Representatives of the Faculties
In order to professionalize equal opportunity work, the University of Freiburg offers training workshops for the equal opportunity representatives of the faculties at regular intervals. The workshops teach and train the representatives in the most important methods and strategies for committee work, professorial appointments and other recruiting procedures, and mediation in special cases (e.g., cases of sexual harassment).
Bertha Ottenstein Prize
The University of Freiburg has awarded the Bertha Ottenstein Prize (formerly: Prize for the Promotion of Women) each year since 1997. The prize recognizes and supports innovative projects and structural measures in the area of gender equality as well as outstanding achievements in women’s studies and gender research. The Bertha Ottenstein Prize is worth 500 EUR and is awarded at a public ceremony at the university. The prize was chosen as a national best-practice example by the European Union initiative “Gendera – Gender Debate in the European Research Area.”
Gendera Database
Specific Measures for Prospective and Current Students
Trial Course of Study for Female School Students
Each year since 2004 the University of Freiburg has offered a trial course of study in the fields Mathematics, Computer Science, Natural Science, and Engineering for 120 female school students in grades 10 to 13 in order to attract more females to these fields. The participating departments are Mathematics, Physics, Microsystems Engineering, Computer Science, and Chemistry. In 2011 the Central Academic Advising Office assumed responsibility for the program since it also organizes other similar programs with schools, such as open house, etc.
Internships on Girls’ and Boys’ Day
Since 2004 the university has offered tours and internships to introduce female school students from participating secondary schools in Freiburg to the profession of precision engineering. Boys can try out the profession of preschool teacher for a morning at the university day care center. The staff equal opportunity representative closely follows developments in other professions at the university to counteract the tendency toward typical male or female professions. For instance, since many more females than males have applied for positions as chemistry lab assistants in the past years, the university has also offered tours and internships in this area for boys since 2011.
Mentoring for Female Students
Several faculties of the University of Freiburg offer mentoring programs for female students. These programs aim at providing general support to the students as they make the transition to the next level of qualification. The mentoring program of the Faculty of Law is called “Justitia Mentoring,” that of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics “MeMPhys – Mentoring in Mathematics and Physics,” and that of the Faculty of Medicine “EIRA – Mentoring at the Faculty of Medicine.”
Specific Measures for Employees
Flexitime Models
Flexitime has been introduced for all employees of the Central University Administration as well as the Computing Center, the Institute of Mineralogy and Geochemistry, the Institute of Physics, and the University Library. Other departments may introduce flexitime models at any time if needed – the technical preconditions have been available since 2006.
Telecommuting
The University of Freiburg launched a pilot project for telecommuting/homeworking in 2007. The main goals of the measure are to enable employees to achieve a better work-family balance through a temporal and spatial flexibilization of work organization and to achieve higher motivation and job satisfaction through more self-responsibility in the scheduling of working hours and the organization of working routines, thus leading to improvements in quality and productivity. The project went into normal operation following a successful evaluation in the spring of 2009. At present, 88 employees are taking advantage of telecommuting, 27 males and 61 females.
Part-Time Option
The university has offered employees the option to apply to the Human Resources Department for a reduction in working hours due to family reasons since 1995. Employees can also have this reduction in working hours written into their employment contract if they are raising or caring for at least one child under 18 or if they provide a medical attest confirming that they are looking after another person in need of care. The part-time option has been expanded continually in the past five years. Possible part-time models now range from 20% to 100% of a full-time position and from one to five days per week.
Dual Career Service
The Dual Career Service offers individual advising and support for couples who both hold high-level academic positions and helps the partners of future high-ranking employees of the University of Freiburg to find an adequate position in the region.
Dual Career Service
STAY! Bridge Scholarship
Within the context of the campaign “New Horizons for Female Researchers” and with support from the booster association Alumni Freiburg e.V., the University of Freiburg and the New University Endowment are offering four STAY! bridge scholarship starting in 2012. The bridge scholarships follow the dual goal of helping excellent young female researchers to realize their potential and supporting them on the path to becoming a professor.
Margarete von Wrangell Habilitation Program for Women
The goal of this program is to encourage qualified female scholars to pursue a habilitation and to provide them with the financial means to do so. The funding is provided by way of TVL 13 positions which, in contrast to scholarships, also provide social security and health insurance benefits. The positions are integrated into the universities. The positions are funded for up to three years by the Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts and up to an additional two years by the university. The program is co-funded by the European Social Fund.
Schlieben-Lange Program for Female Early-Stage Researchers with a Child
In cooperation with the Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg, the university awards scholarships to outstanding female early-stage researchers with a child who wish to combine their academic qualification with familial responsibilities and begin or resume work on a research project, whether full time or alongside their current job.
Bertha Ottenstein Chairs Funded by the Excellence Initiative
The Junior Research Group Program of the University of Freiburg is a central measure for promoting junior researchers in the postdoctoral phase and is organized as a yearly competition open to all disciplines and topics. At the end of the international assessment procedure, up to two junior research groups are established each year and equipped with competitive resources. A Bertha Ottenstein Chair for the promotion of outstanding female scholars, named after the first women to earn her habilitation qualification in Freiburg (1931), is reserved exclusively for the head of one of the two groups. In this way, the university encourages and supports women in their intention to pursue an academic career.
Measures for Balancing Family, Studies, and Career
Central Family Service
The university has planned and implemented measures for improving the compatibility of work/studies and family life since the early 1990s. In the beginning this was the responsibility of the women’s representative, and later the faculty equal opportunity representative, but now the university has its own Family Service, which has operated as a central administrative office under the direction of the head of administration since 2010. The Family Service is responsible for the university’s own day care centers, for implementing measures to promote work-family balance, and for developing new projects, particularly projects concerning the expansion of child care. The Family Service also advises university employees on day care services, structures for supporting families, and financial aid and helps them to find individual solutions to problems concerning work-family balance. New (especially international) employees of the university receive help finding child care and suitable schools for their children.
Family-Friendly Meeting Times
The model of family-friendly meeting times already practiced successfully at several faculties was also adopted by the Senate in 2009. The Senate now holds its sessions at 2:15 p.m. (as opposed to 3:15 p.m. as previously), allowing them to be completed within regular working hours even when the agenda includes particularly time-consuming items.
Research Sabbatical for (Single) Parents
In order to ease the transition from the doctoral to the postdoctoral phase, the Faculty of Economics and Behavioral Sciences pledged in its equal opportunity plan to offer women and men with a child or children the opportunity to spend several semesters conducting research without any teaching duties. This option will be available to both women and men who are already raising children as well as to those who have a child during this phase. It is planned to offer two semesters of research sabbatical to parents with one child and an additional semester for each additional child. The faculty pledges to make funding available for adjunct teaching faculty during this period. This can mean up to 10,000 € per semester for each case. The Faculty of Mathematics and Physics and the Faculty of Engineering have opted to focus on single early-stage researchers and allow them to apply for a semester of research sabbatical.
Child Care
The University of Freiburg provides a total of 99 child care slots for children up to six years of age at the day nursery Uni-Zwerge, the day care center Uni-Kita, the day care center Biolino, and concept maternel gGmbH. In addition, another 125 slots for the children of students are available at the child care facilities of the Freiburg Office of Student Services.
Child Care during Conferences and Events
The Family Service offers child care during conferences and other events held by faculties, departments, and other university institutes on a case-by-case basis.
Babysitter Pool and Emergency Child Care
In cooperation with the Freiburg Office of Student Services and the German Red Cross, the Family Service has set up a babysitter database that parents can use to find a qualified babysitter on short notice. The goal is to provide adequate services to cover the individual child care needs of families in emergency situations.
Family Room
In June 2010 the university opened a family room where parents can go with their children between courses on the main campus. The room is equipped with toys, a diaper-changing table, and a bottle warmer for preparing baby food. There is also a small study corner with wireless Internet access where parents can work on their laptops. All students and employees with children can sign up to receive access to the room.
Diaper-Changing and Breastfeeding Facilities in University Buildings
There are currently 23 diaper-changing stations in university buildings, ten of them on the main campus. There are also three lactation rooms. The diaper-changing stations are located in the women’s as well as the men’s restrooms in order to allow both sexes access to them. The diaper-changing stations are marked with the same signs throughout the university.
Family-Friendly Amenities in Buildings
All new buildings that are intended for public use, such as the Student Service Center or the new University Library, are required to be accessible with a baby carriage. There will be a safe place to park baby carriages in or in front of the buildings. The new University Library, scheduled to open in 2014, will also have its own family room, which will make it easier for (studying) parents to visit the library with their children.
Staff Children’s Day (MiKi-Tag)
The university’s Staff Children’s Day is held on the same day as the nationwide Girl’s Day. On this day, children of employees are invited to accompany their parents to the office, the classroom, or the workshop. The purpose of Staff Children’s Day is to increase the visibility of the topic “family” at the university and raise awareness for questions concerning work-family balance. The initiative also gives children the opportunity to gain insight into various professions at the university and develop their own ideas and aspirations for the future.
Parent-Child Areas in Cafeterias and Children’s Meals
In 2009 the university’s cafeterias were equipped with their own parent-child areas (“Mensalinos”), which are separate from the rest of the dining area and in which families can eat lunch together. There are also play areas and lactation rooms. In addition, students with children under six receive a free “children’s meal” with the purchase of their own meal.