Completed projects

For a long time, marine research was seen as a field dominated by men. This has changed significantly in recent years. At sea and on land, women and men from all over the world are working together on interdisciplinary projects. However, this positive development is not yet reflected at management level. As in many other areas, the proportion of women after the doctorate is falling noticeably. This is particularly evident in professorships, leadership of research trips and in the management of technical departments.

Eight scientific institutions from the five Baltic Sea countries Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania and Germany - including HAW Kiel - are working together in the "Baltic Gender" project to change this situation. "Baltic Gender" is developing effective and meaningful indicators that the individual institutions can include in their development planning in order to achieve gender equality goals and thus improve the career opportunities of women in marine research.

The Helmholtz Center based at GEOMAR is coordinating the EU project, which is funded with 2.2 million euros. At HAW Kiel, the "Baltic Gender" project is based at the Equal Opportunities Office in close cooperation with the Institute for Interdisciplinary Gender Research and Diversity (IGD). Due to the technical orientation of HAW Kiel, for example with regard to the research area of marine technology in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering as well as shipbuilding in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, there are some interfaces in terms of content. As part of a sub-project, HAW Kiel is working closely with the Finnish Institute for the Environment (SYKE) to integrate gender aspects into (marine) scientific research and teaching. To this end, target group-oriented workshops are offered and topic-related guidelines and handouts are developed.

Other sub-projects of "Baltic Gender" focus on topics such as the career development of female scientists, networking, structural framework conditions for gender equality (e.g. recruitment procedures, distribution of resources) or the compatibility of family and scientific career. In addition, "Baltic Gender" is filled with life through numerous information and offers:

• Women Scientists Blog
• newsletter
• Best practice examples in the field of gender equality