More than 70% of professorships in Germany are still held by men, more women than men work part time and are more affected by the gender pay gap, pension gaps and exclusion from male-dominated networks. All of this is intensified when female academics become mothers - in addition to the glass ceiling and leaky pipeline, mothers face the maternal wall and a motherhood penalty. For fathers, on the other hand, there is still a fatherhood bonus meaning that they are more likely to get promoted if they have children because they are supposed to support a family financially. This traditional view upon men and women and their stereotypical roles is hurtful to all of us. Female academics are under general suspicion that at some point their children could be more important than their career - even if they don't want to or can't have children. Fathers are supposed to spend most of their lifetime at work and not with their children. Which solutions and what kinds of support can there be for parents in academia? What options do universities have to counteract the increased dropout of mothers (which is currently 50%)? In addition to analyzing the status quo of so-called compatibility, we will discuss these questions and present examples of good practice.

Speakers will be Lena Eckert, gender studies scholar and researcher of writing and education, and media and cultural studies scholar Sarah Czerney, who founded the nationwide Motherhood and Science network (Netzwerk Mutterschaft und Wissenschaft) together in 2021.

The interactive lecture is part of this year's RMU Weeks of Equal Opportunities, organized jointly by the Equal Opportunity Offices of Goethe University Frankfurt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and Technical University of Darmstadt.

Additional information and the Zoom log in information are available in the program under "Downloads".