Programs for the advancement of women at RPTU
RPTU strives to support and promote equality and equal rights for women at all university levels.
Various support programs are available for this purpose - be it mentoring for first-year students, the peer coaching program for post-docs or funding for individual professional development measures.
Overview of support programs for women at RPTU
For female high school students and first-year college students
To help first-year female students and those in their first semester get off to a good start at the university and lay the groundwork for their future professional paths and career planning, the Equal Opportunity Office at RPTU in Kaiserslautern offers a free mentoring program for female students in all departments.
Female STEM students at RPTU serve as ambassadors for their STEM disciplines, design extracurricular learning programs for interested female high school students in the region, and receive targeted training in science communication to acquire interdisciplinary key competencies for their academic studies and future careers.
For young female researchers and female professors
Currently not available
Funding from the Rhineland-Palatinate State Gender Equality Program is used to offer various initiatives at RPTU aimed at supporting researchers at different career stages and qualification levels. Funding is awarded on behalf of the RPTU’s Central Gender Equality Officer, and coordination is handled by the Equal Opportunity Office.
Mentoring programs are a strategy for increasing the number of women in leadership positions. Experienced leaders ( mentors) support and guide a younger, less experienced person (mentee) over a defined period of time, outside the usual supervisor-subordinate relationship. The RPTU mentoring program is offered by the Equal Opportunity Office.
The peer coaching program is a continuing education offering from the ZGaPL.
Federal and state programs for the advancement of women
The Ada Lovelace Project is a statewide center of excellence for women in science and technology. Since 1997, it has been established at nearly every college and university in Rhineland-Palatinate.
At its core, the Ada Lovelace Project focuses on two things: role models and hands-on experience. At RPTU, the goal is to inspire girls and young women to pursue careers in STEM and to show them all the possibilities that STEM has to offer. We want to break down traditional gender roles and strengthen the positive image of STEM professions. You can find more information here.
The “Financial Assistance for Women” website allows individuals and organizations to quickly and easily find information on a total of approximately 260 funding programs offered by the EU, the federal government, the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, the Employment Agency, as well as banks and foundations.
The site allows you to search in a targeted and user-friendly way for financial assistance for specific target groups—such as women starting their own businesses, apprentices, women with disabilities, women immigrants, and female researchers—or by key topics, such as education, social issues, and the workplace.
The Klara Marie Faßbinder Visiting Professorship has been funded by the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Science since 2001 and rotates among the state’s universities. Each semester, an internationally renowned scholar accepts an appointment at the host university. Further information
In 2023, the Klara Marie Faßbinder Visiting Professorship was held at RPTU by Christine Fath. In addition to courses on the topic of “Gender in Teaching,” the topic “The Influence of Female Role Models on the Career Paths of Women in Architecture” was also explored.
As part of the Rhineland-Palatinate State Gender Equality Program, central events are offered in addition to the initiatives provided locally at individual universities. These events are aimed at women at all public universities in Rhineland-Palatinate.
Topics range from writing workshops to workshops on building self-confidence (impostor syndrome) to job application training for tenure-track positions. The events are mostly free of charge and are funded or subsidized centrally by the state.
Currently Offered Central Initiatives
You can find information here about the decentralized offerings from the State Gender Equality Program at RPTU:
The state of Rhineland-Palatinate and all universities offer early-career researchers attractive opportunities for professional development and career advancement.
The re-entry fellowships are a tool for the reintegration and further training of female researchers following a period dedicated to family or caregiving, or even a period of qualified professional work. They thus enable researchers to complete scientific work they have already begun.