Gender Equality & Diversity

Gender Equality

The University seeks to achieve equality between women and men in all its processes. The legal bases for this are Article 3 of the German Basic Law, Section 4 of the State University Act, and the Equal Opportunities Act.

The strategy governing the University’s equality policies is based on the Gender Equality Plan, which is embedded in the Structural and Development Plan and, in its current version, sets out the following objectives for the years 2017 to 2022:

• Increasing the proportion of women in senior scientific positions
• Career and personnel development for young women scientists
• Recruitment of students to subjects in which they are underrepresented
• Gender balance in the non-scientific field
• Establishment of a family-friendly university
• Implementation of gender mainstreaming

Diversity

For us at RWU, diversity means that we see the great diversity of students as an opportunity for a vibrant and rich university culture and at the same time as a duty to achieve equal opportunities and to protect against discrimination. Irrespective of nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, disabilities and current living conditions, all students should feel welcome and participate in university life.

For this to succeed, we wish to strengthen what unites us and promote openness, empathy and respect.

Responsibilities and Committees

Gender equality is embedded in the structure of RWU as a staff unit located within the Rectorate. The Equal Opportunities Officer for academic staff and students (EOO) works together with all bodies, institutions and members of the university in order to achieve genuine equality of women and men and to redress existing disadvantage for female students and women working in academia.

With regard to the non-scientific staff, the Equal Opportunities Officer for non-academic staff works towards equality between women and men.

At the university management level, responsibility for gender equality and diversity rests with the Vice-Rectorate for Diversity, Further Education and Student Life established in March 2017.

The Equal Opportunities Commission is an advisory senate committee supporting the university in questions of equal opportunities and diversity. It is composed of

• Prof. Dr. Sebastian Mauser, Vice Rector for Academic Affairs and Quality Management: sebastian.mauser@rwu.de
• Prof. Dr. Marlene Haupt, EOO of RWU and EOO of the S Faculty: marlene.haupt@rwu.de
• Prof. Dr. Thomas Schreier-Alt, Deputy EOO of RWU and EOO of the M Faculty: thomas.schreier-alt@rwu.de
• Prof. Dr. Heike Willax, EOO of the T Faculty: heike.willax@rwu.de
• Prof. Dr. Stefan Elser, EOO of the E Faculty: stefan.elser@rwu.de
• Prof. Dr. Jörg Wendorff, EOO in charge of the family-friendly university: joerg.wendorff@rwu.de
• Melanie Arsene, EOO for non-academic staff: melanie.arsene@rwu.de
• Constantin Schmidt, representative of the Constituted Student Body: constantin.schmidt@rwu.de, deputy Ines Pfeiffer: ines.pfeiffer@rwu.de
• Christine Lauer, Advisor for Gender Equality: christine.lauer@rwu.de