Equal opportunities in figures
What is the percentage of women at the professorship level at WU? How many men graduate from a WU degree program? And how have these figures developed in recent years? These and other data on gender relations are collected annually at WU and published in the Equal Opportunities Report.
Since the reporting year 2019, the Equal Opportunities Report has been published as an online version with interactive elements, so that users can adapt the evaluations to their own interests. For example, they can click on the personnel category or organizational unit they want to view in more detail. We recommend viewing the presentation in full screen mode. To do so, please click on button "To full screen mode".
Important developments in 2023:
The percentage of women in senior faculty positions (full professors) reached a new high of 34.1 %. The percentage of women among newly recruited professors was 40 %. In total, ten people were appointed full professors pursuant to § 98 of the Universities Act and started working at WU in 2023, including four women and six men. However, due to the small size of the absolute numbers (n[female professors]=36.24) and the underlying total number of employees in this personnel category (n[professors]=106.34), short-term fluctuations in these percentages should be interpreted with caution, as any individual female professor who leaves the university or goes on a leave of absence is enough to significantly change this ratio. WU is implementing a number of measures to further increase the percentage of women in senior faculty (see our web pages on equal opportunities and gender equality).
At the associate professor level the percentage of women fell by one percentage point to 44.6 %.
At the senior assistant professor level the downward trend of recent years continued and the percentage of women at this level decreased to 38.5 % (compared to 40.4 % in the previous year).
After an increase in the percentage of women at the level of assistant professors (post-docs) in the previous year, the percentage of women at this level fell to 45.04 % in 2023.
At the level of level of teaching and research associates (pre-docs) the percentage of women rose from 47.78 % to 49.71 %.
In the previous years, the percentage of women in tenure-track positions[1] has always been 50 % or more. In 2023, it fell below 50 % for the first time since 2012 and totalled 46 %. WU is trying to counteract this development with targeted measures to promote women (e.g. WU Policy on Equal Opportunities).
After a significant increase in the previous year, the percentage of women among applicants for research funding fell by around 2 percentage points to 42.6 %. It is noteworthy that the share of the funding volume awarded to women continued to increase in 2023: At 55.1 %, as in the previous year, the share of the funding volume awarded to women was significantly higher than the percentage of women applicants (42.6 %).
At the second and third management levels in WU’s administrative staff, the share of women developed in opposite directions: At the second management level (heads of WU’s service units), the share of women among the management personnel remained constant at 45 %, while at the third management level (heads of individual divisions within service units) the share of women rose from 44 % to 52 %. There is still a considerable gap between these figures and the overall percentage of women among WU’s administrative staff (67 %).
In terms of degrees awarded at WU, the sharp decline in the percentage of PhD / doctoral degrees awarded to women is striking: At this level, the percentage of women fell from 41.8 % in the previous year to 30.4 % in 2023. At 46.8 %, the percentage of bachelor’s degrees awarded to women remained relatively unchanged compared to the previous year. The percentage of master’s degrees awarded to women fell from 51.7 % to 48.7 %.
In the student population, the downward trend in the percentage of women among WU’s bachelor’s students continued in 2023. At this level, the percentage of women fell slightly to 45.8 %. In contrast, the percentage of women among WU’s master’s students rose a little (48.6 %), while the percentage of women among PhD/doctoral students also increased slightly (45.4 %).
Tenure-track positions are initially fixed-term positions subject to fulfillment of a qualification agreement, which then automatically results in permanent employment.