Gender In Science: The Impact Of Equality Policies In Scientific Institutions And Practices: The Case Of Germany

The Fourth World Conference on Women that took place in Beijing in 1995 became a milestone in the history of gender equality. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted unanimously by 189 countries, became a central document for gender equality policies around the world. Today we can observe how the situation of women has substantially changed in relation to their physical and economic autonomy, their participation in decision-making processes and their integration into different levels of education. It is important to take stock of the changes that occurred in the past two decades to be able to identify the challenges that we are to face in the following years. In this context, I would like to discuss in this article the measures taken to gender mainstream policies to fight gender inequalities in the frame of the actions proposed by the European Union (EU) to establish gender equality mechanisms in science and technology. To this end, I will first provide an introduction to gender equality policies in the European context and briefly comment on their impact. Secondly, I will summarise the equality policies in German academia and science and provide elements to understand why in Germany, in spite of great efforts to institutionalise gender equality policies, women are still greatly underrepresented in science and research in the European context. © 2016, Universidade Estadual de Campinas UNICAMP. All rights reserved.20164