Gender equality

This field of research addresses the key question "Why are so few women studying physics?". It leads to research into gender-related prejudices and their break-up in vocational and study orientation.

The causes of the persistence of gender inequalities in physics have hardly been studied. Previous studies show that the development of gender identity in puberty has a decisive influence on the preference subjects of girls in school and leads to a strong lack of interest in the subject of physics, which significantly influences the professional or study orientation. Long-term measures that girls continuously follow during puberty and, for example, use female biographical role models as mentors greatly increase the enthusiasm for physics in girls. In addition, other influencing factors such as the gender-differentiated performance expectations and family support cultures as well as stereotyping in the peer group play a role. Thus, initial studies show that girls expect little sympathy from their mothers for their own scientific and technical interest. The parents have a great influence on a stereotypical career choice. The question of how social stereotypes in the family and peer group affect the scientific and technical career orientation is investigated in this project area in cooperation with the already established girls' support in the extracurricular learning place MExLab ExperiMINTe. This includes the questions of why the proportion of women in physics teacher training, but also in certain fields of physics such as medical physics or biophysics is consistently higher, which decision-making processes lead to this study and career choice and which social and scientific self-concepts play a role.