Gender Affairs and Equal Opportunity

The advancement of women in research and higher education through measures to promote equality has been on the agenda of the university's educational policy since the 1980s. With its general plan for the advancement of women and a particular system of incentives, the Senate of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz has established two important instruments for realizing gender equality.

Since 1998, the incentive system for the advancement of women, which is regarded as a nation-wide model, has supported and honored various departmental advancement efforts. In fact, the principle of gender mainstreaming is rooted in our Mission Statement as well as in the Strategic Concept of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.

The advancement of women has also been an integral performance component in the internal funding assessment model and the concept of staff assessment. Young female academics and specially qualified staff of the university technical and administration departments and the university library are supported with prizes for outstanding efforts. The initiation of central projects includes other important and innovative areas, such as a coaching center for young women academics, a network for day-care, etc.

Our concentrated efforts were honored by the association TOTAL E-QUALITY Deutschland e.V. which has bestowed upon Mainz University the so-called "Total E-Quality-Award" for exemplary acts in terms of a personnel policy concentrated on the equality of opportunities three times in a row - in 2005, 2008, and 2011.