Birgid Langer

Dr. Birgid Langer

  • Institute for Organic Chemistry (IOC, Campus South) and Institute for Biological Interfaces (IBG II, Campus North)

     

    Equal Opportunities Office, Vincenz-Prießnitz-Straße 1, 76131 Karlsruhe, phone.: (+49) 7 21 - 6 08-4 51 44

Tasks and Responsibilities within the Team of Equal Opportunities Officers
  • Supervising the promotion of equal opportunities for men and women
  • Advice and support in matters related to work-life balance and protection against sexual harassment at work
  • Participation in boards as well as in appointment and selection committees
  • Participation in commissions related to academic studies and teaching
  • My own measures:
    • Co-initiation of the Children’s Universe
    • Organization of vacation care with scientific and engineering topics
    • Organization of the Scientific & Technical Children’s Research Laboratory
    • Representation in the Bundes- und Landeskonferenz der Gleichstellungsbeauftragten
    • Public relations
    • Raising the awareness of all employees to equal opportunities

 

Motivation

To achieve excellence in research and teaching, KIT must attract the best brains. Since intelligence and the ability to perform are equal in men and women, gender percentages should be distributed more or less evenly at all levels and also in management and leading positions. This is not the case, however, and awareness thus must be created for the fact that the underrepresentation of one gender is not a gender issue but a more or less massive quality problem. To be able to approach this problem at the KIT, I focus on dealing with the following:

  • Changing of the working culture (e.g. part-time and team-based management)
  • Increasing the percentage of women in subjects where they are underrepresented through measures such as junior staff development (transition between school and academic studies, female PhD students, post docs, and professors)
  • Compatibility of career, academic studies, and family