Gender-equality measures at the CRC
Our gender-equality policies cover governance, recruitment, career development, and mobility support:
The involvement of senior female academics is crucial to the success of many genderequality measures. This has the perverse effect of increasing the administrative and organizational responsibilities that these researchers bear. We use sabbaticals as a compensation for such extra burdens.
On the CRC’s board, at least one representative of each participating university is female. One board member is responsible for gender equality, family and diversity. He or she is in charge of the implementation of all gender-equality measures at the CRC and provide an annual report on these activities.
Recruitment at the doctoral level is from the pool of those students at the graduate schools in Bonn and Mannheim that have completed their coursework. Both schools are committed to gender balance in their selection processes.
In hiring decisions at the postdoctoral level, we pay particular attention to attracting excellent female researchers. We actively search for such candidates and strongly encourage them to apply.
We are committed to coopting newly hired female junior and senior professors whose research agendas fit that of the CRC.
We offer specific training to our female early-career researchers on topics such as self-confidence and professionalism in scientific presentations; building and maintaining professional contacts; presentations in the media; leadership; and conflict management in an academic context. Tailor-made one-to-one coaching will help the participants analyze their strengths and weaknesses and develop a career plan.
In a male-dominated environment, networking is of particular importance for female early-career researchers. The European Economic Association’s Standing Committee on Women in Economics (WinE) offers an annual women’s retreat at the European level. The American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP) organizes a corresponding event in the US (CeMENT). Michelle Sovinsky and Michèle Tertilt were involved as organizers and lecturers. We are committed to providing travel funds to female early-career researchers who wish to attend a networking event offered by WinE or CSWEP.
We ensure that a significant fraction of invited seminars is given by female researchers. At the end of each calendar year, the board will review the gender ratio among its guests and take measures to increase the share of female researchers if this share is deemed too low.
We organize a women’s lunch at each of our semi-annual conferences.
The junior leave program gives priority to female applicants. For the first funding period, we were able to secure university and other funds in an amount sufficient to allow three junior principal investigators to benefit from this program; all three are female.
Two additional mobility programs apply to all early-career researchers of the CRC. If budget constraints become binding, female early-career researchers will have priority.
