How women carved their place in the academic world
Unpopular and unwelcome in academic circles. That’s how women were viewed in German universities for a long time. They were exceptions in a male-dominated domain. Despite the Weimar Constitution of 1919 enshrining gender equality, a significant setback kept the percentage of female students below ten percent until 1945. It’s only since the 1990s that roughly as many women as men have been studying at universities, gradually making their way into leadership positions in academia.
Unimaginable! What the renowned philosopher, writer, and educator Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote in his 1762 work “Émile, or On Education” (“Émile, ou De l’éducation”) would be considered scandalous today. He was considered a revolutionary in pedagogy and an Enlightenment thinker.
However, during that time, weekly publications were already depicting the image of scholarly women, but Rousseau’s views reflected the prevailing gender roles in philosophy, theology, and medicine:
“So the entire education of women must be relative to men. To please them, to be useful to them, to make themselves loved and honored by them, to raise them, to educate them, to advise them, to console them, to render their lives easy and agreeable; these are the duties of women at all times, and what should be taught them from their infancy.”
Courageous women rebel
It’s no wonder that this perception of roles led to a separation of tasks for women and men. Girls were raised differently from boys. While they were expected to excel in household management, morals, and religion, only boys were prepared for an academic education. Higher education was a privilege affordable only to the wealthy. However, not all women were content with the roles assigned to them, like Laura Bassi.
She stood out as a “child prodigy” from a young age, passed her two-hour public doctoral examination in April 1732, and became a professor of physics in 1776—the first female university professor in Europe. Dorothea Christiane Erxleben (1715–1762) had a similarly unusual journey. She was the daughter of a doctor and, with special permission, was allowed to take her medical exams, becoming Germany’s first female doctor in 1754.
But they both had something in common: they were remarkable exceptions and had to fight for their admission. There was one condition that girls couldn’t fulfill, which was a prerequisite for university studies. Until 1899, they were denied access to the Abitur (high school diploma).
Thus, young women in the first half of the 19th century had only one path open to them: attending teacher training seminaries to work as educators or teachers in private girls’ schools. Those who enrolled as guest students at universities had no access to laboratories, seminars, or libraries and couldn’t attain academic degrees.
The long-awaited breakthrough
Until 1867, Henriette Goldschmidt initiated a revolution. Women’s rights activists of the time were in agreement. There was only one path to greater equality: a reformed education for girls. So, Henriette Goldschmidt presented a petition at the first meeting of the General German Women’s Association (ADF). The demand: to grant women equal access to higher education, especially in medicine. It was considered improper and offensive for a woman to be examined by a male doctor.
However, her dream didn’t come true until 1893, spurred on by Hedwig Kettler. She had approached the state legislatures of the German Empire, but only the liberal Grand Duchy of Baden had heeded her request. So, she was allowed to open the first German girls’ gymnasium in Karlsruhe. Six years later, Rahel Goitein (later Straus; 1880–1963), Magdalena Meub (later Neff; 1881–1966), Johanna Kappes (1879–1933), and Auguste Mainzer became the first cohort to pass the Abitur exam, with two of them studying medicine.
Finally equal?
This set things in motion. Just a year later, Baden universities officially opened their doors to female students, and in 1908, women’s higher education was allowed in other parts of the German Empire. Ultimately, in 1919, the Weimar Constitution enshrined gender equality, and the education system in Germany was reformed.
From then on, girls could obtain the Abitur and attend universities under the same conditions as boys, until a political turn dealt a severe blow to equality.
“We were used to being bossed around by men as women. But I always wondered, what am I doing wrong that they treat me so strangely?”
Sarah Haffner (1968 in Berlin)
A harsh setback
Everything changed in an instant. The timid seed of equality was crushed. When the Nazi regime came to power in 1933, it reintroduced outdated gender roles: women were to be nurturing mothers and housewives, serving the Reich.
Under their propaganda, the Nazis pushed women out of public and academic life and ensured that the “Women’s Admission Act” limited female students to a maximum of ten percent.
This situation only slowly improved after World War II. After the collapse of the Nazi regime, it took time for women to return to the field of science.
Although they regained the right to higher education as early as 1945, in the Federal Republic of Germany, there were no female department heads until 1954, and a total of only nine associate professors giving lectures. In East Germany, the proportion of female students was higher from the beginning – 25 percent compared to 17 percent in West Germany.
However, true equality was still a long way off. The story of physicist Lise Meitner illustrates this. For decades, she conducted research on radioactivity and nuclear fission alongside Otto Hahn. When Hahn retrospectively received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1945, Lise Meitner was left empty-handed. This remains one of the greatest injustices in the history of science to this day.
“What was beautiful was that she was heavily pregnant, had red hair, stood there in a green dress, and threw those tomatoes. Well, that caused a commotion, and on the same evening, women’s groups were formed in every university town.”
Helke Sander (1968)
A tomato throw that changed everything
It took a tomato throw to bring about a turning point. In 1968, these tomatoes were hurled by an enraged Sigrid Rüger at the Delegate Conference of the Socialist German Student Union (SDS) in Frankfurt am Main. Helke Sander, a representative of the Action Council for the Liberation of Women, had argued in a speech that childcare and housework were not private matters but political ones. She insisted that the SDS acknowledge this, or else there would be a power struggle.
When the SDS comrades were unwilling to discuss this speech and simply wanted to move on with the agenda, Sigrid Rüger, as a protest, threw tomatoes towards the executive table. This marked the beginning of the second wave of the women’s movement, followed by an educational offensive. More and more women started pursuing higher education and decided to take control of their lives.
There were also political developments. Laws like the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG), colloquially known as the Anti-Discrimination Act, and the Federal Equality Act were enacted.
However, there were still significantly fewer women in academic leadership positions. So, politics and universities began to establish mentorship programs, networks, and support initiatives, as well as developing equality plans. International collaborations promoted the exchange of standards and practices.
Statistics
While in 1964, twice as many boys as girls obtained their high school diploma (Abitur), by the 1980s, girls had caught up and even surpassed boys.
Where we are in 2022
One thing is clear: a lot has happened. Nowadays, in most fields, there are just as many female students as male students, and in some cases, even more. There is no longer any gender difference in bachelor’s and master’s degrees or doctoral theses.
However, there is still an imbalance in one area: at German universities, there are only about 30 percent female professors, with the rest being occupied by men (2022 figures). The good news is that there is a steady upward trend in the number of female professors.
“In a research project conducted by us, it became clear that unquestioned notions of ‘excellence,’ often oriented toward male scientific biographies, are a field that we must critically address in the future.”
Professorin Ute Klammer
(Director of the Institute for Work and Qualification and Professor of Social Policy at the University of Duisburg-Essen)
How did female scientists manage to rise to the top?
Looking back reveals much. It shows that women had to fight against stereotypes and prejudices for many years, and in the 19th and 20th centuries, only networks and supportive mentors allowed them to establish themselves in science. Only those who had both the financial means and the courage to fight for special permissions managed to enter and stay in the scientific field.
The early pioneers forged their paths with determination and resilience to assert themselves in a male-dominated environment. Margarete von Wrangell repeatedly demonstrated this as well. Her demeanor and strong character were mentioned by many contemporaries. However, it should be noted that she could afford her studies because she had the financial means as an aristocrat.
“Much greater than the challenge of being a woman, I experienced the challenge of being a parent in the field of science. (…) Women often have to deal with establishing themselves in science and starting a family at the same time.”
Dr. Pauline Fleischmann
(Neuroethologist and Research Associate at the Chair of Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology at the University of Würzburg)
What matters today
Today, things are different. The currency of science is no longer just networks. Instead, the number and quality of publications and successful acquisition of research funds are considered measures of success – even when applying for a professorship. However, scientists with young children have less time to fulfill these requirements since the qualification phase often coincides with starting a family.
Thus, whether someone becomes a professor depends not only on academic qualification but also on life circumstances.
As a result, women continue to be underrepresented as university presidents, deans, or professors in scientific institutions. This is despite the fact that universities throughout Germany have introduced a variety of gender equality programs.
Even with all the progress, it still seems that women are more willing to put their career goals on hold for the sake of children.
Germany in international comparison
So, how does Germany fare in international comparison? Not bad at all. However, as is often the case, the Scandinavian countries lead the way. They have a higher proportion of female professors and more comprehensive gender equality programs. In comparison, the numbers in the United States or the United Kingdom are similar to Germany’s, while in many Southern European and Asian countries, there are still larger gender disparities in higher academic positions or university administration.
One thing is clear: success did not come and does not come on its own. Legal regulations or programs like the “Professorinnenprogramm” (Female Professors Program) played a significant role in the progress. Public debate and role models have also contributed to breaking down barriers and improving career opportunities. This is evident even in today’s male-dominated field of computer science, which began with the developments of British mathematician Ada Lovelace (1815–1852) and where numerous women worked on programming tasks in the 20th century.
Carnegie Mellon University demonstrated in the early 21st century how important the framework conditions are. The American university managed to increase the percentage of female students in computer science from 7 to 45 percent from 1995 to 2002. This was mainly achieved by introducing a new introductory course in programming with minimal prerequisites and training high school computer science teachers on the “gender gap” topic. It shows what we can change if we want to attract more women to technical professions.
“As a woman, networking with other women in similar situations is very helpful (…) The biggest challenges during my nearly completed doctoral phase were funding my doctoral position and the time limits of employment contracts.”
Daniela Schob
(PhD candidate and Research Associate at the Chair of Technical Mechanics and Machine Dynamics at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg)
Sources (in German)
Buch: Universität Hohenheim 1818 – 2018, Festschrift zum 200jährigen Jubiläum von Harald Hagemann und Gert Kollmer – von Oheimb-Loup (Hg), erschienen im Ulmer Verlag