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Girls’Day at the FU: Girls discover MINT careers and future opportunities!
On Girls'Day 2025, the FU Berlin is offering over 40 workshops for school students to promote women in MINT careers and at the same time counteract gender asymmetries.
Girls’Day at the FU: Girls discover MINT careers and future opportunities!
On March 18, 2025, the nationwide Girls' Day will take place at the Free University of Berlin, in which all mathematics and natural science departments and central institutions will actively participate. The departments of biology, chemistry, pharmacy, earth sciences, mathematics, computer science and physics are at the heart of this initiative. Institutions such as FUB-IT, the Botanical Garden with the Botanical Museum and the Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB) are also involved and offer over 40 workshops that give around 520 students insights into current research and laboratory work. The workshop topics are diverse and include, among other things, how the Internet works, creative solutions through mathematics and the influence of economic decisions on decisions in everyday life. The aim of Girls’Day is to inspire students to take up underrepresented professional fields for women. Particular attention is paid to counteracting gender asymmetries in MINT careers, as women are less likely than men to choose MINT courses of study fu-berlin.de reported.
The Free University of Berlin has been taking part in this important day since 2002. The organization on site is carried out by women's and equal opportunities representatives as well as contact persons from the respective departments and institutions. The gender*equitable team and the MINToring coordination actively support the implementation of the project. It is particularly worth mentioning that around 28% of computer science students at the FU are female, while the proportion of women in physics is around a third. These numbers show that while gender equity efforts in STEM are making progress, a male-dominated environment continues to prevail, particularly in engineering and science disciplines blogs.fu-berlin.de.
Commitment to gender equality
In recent years, the Free University of Berlin has launched various projects to promote and support female students. These include, among other things, workshops and internships in the MINT subjects through the MINToring program as well as encounters with natural scientists in the NAtürlich project. Despite these initiatives, statistics show that the proportion of female students in STEM fields remains low. Ten years ago, the proportion of female students in computer science was less than 20%, while in physics it exceeded 30% for the first time in 2012. This highlights the lengthy challenges that need to be overcome in order to achieve a balanced gender distribution in these courses.
A quantitative analysis at the FU examines the existing gender asymmetries in MINT subjects. It is noted that the underrepresentation of women in STEM leads to a lack of female role models in scientific positions, which can negatively influence young women's decisions to pursue a STEM career. Female professors at the FU, such as Hélène Esnault and Christiane Koch, represent important examples of women in leadership positions, but overall the visibility of female academics in MINT subjects remains a challenge. The social causes of these disparities, such as gender socialization and gender stereotypes, must continue to be intensively researched and addressed mint-zirkel.de emphasized.
In summary, it can be said that Girls' Day at the Free University of Berlin is not just a one-off event, but symbolizes long-term efforts to promote gender equality in MINT careers and study programs. In order to bring about lasting change, it is essential to further develop existing programs and introduce measures to support girls and young women in MINT beyond Girls' Day.