The Faculty of Social Sciences awards the Gender Equality Prize every year. It recognizes particularly innovative and sustainable approaches to promoting equality between men and women that are or have been implemented at the Faculty of Social Sciences. Projects that promote gender equality in terms of personnel and structure, as well as initiatives that address gender equality in research and teaching, are eligible for the award. The prize, endowed with €1000, is awarded each winter semester as part of the Siemens Colloquium of the Faculty of Social Sciences (call for applications).
The Gender Equality Prize of the Faculty of Social Sciences was included in the German Research Foundation's (DFG) toolbox for gender equality in science as a model example of gender equality measures in research and teaching.
Award winners
The following prizewinners have been awarded the Gender Equality Prize to date:
2017: Lotte Glatt, Sarah Pache, Constanze Radnoti, Jonas Seufert and Franziska Stadlmayer
"Factor XY" - A scientific investigation of the gender pay gap in journalism
The Gender Equality Prize of the Faculty of Social Sciences at LMU Munich, endowed with research and study funds of 1000 euros, has been awarded to Lotte Glatt, Sarah Pache, Constanze Radnoti, Jonas Seufert and Franziska Stadlmayer for the project "Faktor XY" in 2017.
The Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Hans-Bernd Brosius, honored the scientific study on the gender pay gap between female and male journalists at the scientific colloquium of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation. The four prizewinners are studying for a Master's degree in Journalism, which is offered jointly by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich and the German School of Journalism (DJS) Munich.
As part of a seminar at the Institute of Communication Science and Media Research, the five students compared the salaries of female and male journalists at certain points in their careers. They found that men and women are paid roughly the same on average in the first ten years of their careers. After 15 years in the profession, however, the average income of women stagnates for around ten years. This is attributed to the fact that women take parental leave more often than men. After returning to work, women often take on a part-time position, which is associated with a loss of income compared to a full-time position.
The study is an exceptional example of student research. In their theoretically and methodologically sound study, the five authors address one of the most important characteristics of inequality between men and women. The successful communication of the results on the website www.faktor-xy.org was also recognized. There, the students present their research results in a practical and appealing way for interested people inside and outside academia. In this way, the students contribute to the promotion of gender awareness.
The jury for the Gender Equality Award, consisting of the Dean, the Faculty Women's Representative, a representative of the mid-level faculty and a student representative, found this concept particularly worthy of an award and invites students and academics to be inspired by it for their own research and teaching.
2016: Lea Schütze
A gender-sensitive concept in the exercise "Age(s) and gender"
The Gender Equality Prize of the Faculty of Social Sciences at LMU Munich, which is endowed with research and teaching funds amounting to 1,000 euros, has been awarded to Lea Schütze for 2016.
At the academic colloquium of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation, the Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Hans-Bernd Brosius, honored a gender-sensitive teaching concept with exemplary character, which Ms. Schütze carried out as part of her exercise "Age(ing) and Gender" in the summer semester of 2016. In this exercise, Ms. Schütze created gender sensitivity in two different ways: on the one hand, by designing the content of the exercise and, on the other, by creating family-friendly conditions for the course.
In terms of content, Lea Schütze's exercise sensitized a broad student body to gender inequality in the context of a seminar topic that does not primarily deal with gender issues. During the course, the students repeatedly discussed the contribution that gender studies can make to theories and findings in the sociology of ageing, for example by examining the socio-political contextual conditions of gender-specific poverty in old age. The students also developed a particular sensitivity for gender stereotypes (e.g. "new grandfatherhood" and "late motherhood") by dealing with the topic of age(ing) and learned the ability to question these (also in everyday life).
However, the family-friendly framework conditions of the exercise were also recognized. The sessions of the course and all consultation hours were explicitly offered at times within the core childcare hours and opportunities for examinations were created that allowed maximum flexibility within the framework of the legal requirements. These framework conditions and gender-sensitive didactics with diverse learning and participation opportunities made the course as inclusive as possible for different genders and lifestyles.
The jury for the Gender Equality Award, consisting of the Dean, the Faculty Women's Representative, a representative of the mid-level faculty and a student representative, found this concept particularly worthy of an award and invites colleagues to be inspired by it for their own teaching.
2015: Lisa Abbenhardt, Cornelia Schadler, Lea Schütze, Jasmin Siri & Julia Wustmann
"Ment 15" - Mentoring program for female students and doctoral candidates at the Faculty of Social Sciences
The Gender Equality Award of the Faculty of Social Sciences at LMU Munich, which is endowed with research and teaching funds of 1,000 euros, was awarded for the first time in 2015. Lisa Abbenhardt, Cornelia Schadler, Lea Schütze, Jasmin Siri and Julia Wustmann were honored for the mentoring program "Ment 15".
The Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Hans-Bernd Brosius, honors the mentoring program "Ment 15", which was founded by Jasmin Siri and Julia Wustmann in the summer semester of 2014, during the Scientific Colloquium of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation. Since then, "Ment15" has been supporting female Master's and doctoral students on their career path into academia in a way that is unique at LMU (find out more about Ment 15).
The "Ment15" team founded the mentoring program based on the realization that career support must begin early and that the course for a successful academic career is not set after the doctorate. Scientific studies clearly show that the little formalized support for young academics at universities in Germany favours same-sex support relationships. As there are a particularly large number of male academics among those who supervise female master's and doctoral students, for a long time it was mainly male junior staff who were supported by the system. "Ment 15" counteracts this development by specifically supporting female Master's and doctoral students through individual mentors from the faculty.
Ment15 was also recognized for the wide range of networking meetings and workshops that are continuously organized and offered by the Ment15 team. These events serve to support female Master's students and doctoral candidates in overcoming gender-specific disadvantages at the university through career coaching.
The jury for the Gender Equality Award, consisting of the Dean, the Deputy Faculty Women's Representative, a representative of the mid-level faculty and a representative of the students, found this concept particularly worthy of an award, as "Ment 15" counteracts the fundamental causes of gender inequality at the university. The jury wishes the "Ment 15" team all the best for their future, important work!