RTG 2737 – STRESSistance
Gender Equality
The University of Kaiserslautern has been awarded both the “Familiengerechte Hochschule” certificate (since 2005) and the “Total e-quality” audit (since 2018) on basis of its very good in-frastructure for students and researchers with young families. A multitude of initiatives has been established to support a sustainable balance between family and career. These include mentoring programs, programs for female students from local schools, special recruiting strategies, the possibility of a flexible work schedule, part-time employment and support for returning to work after maternity or paternity. For further information, please visit the respective University websites. Within STRESSistance, we will pay special attention to equal opportunities, and we will promote the compatibility of a scientific career and family for all genders. We will take our mission in this area very seriously and will apply different measures to promote gender equality within our Research Training Group. Some of our measures are listed below and please contact our coordinator in case of any question.
Family-friendly attitude
To communicate our family-friendly and supportive attitude, we include dedicated sessions during our meetings and inform our doctoral students explicitly about possible support measures. In addition, our PIs do not only present their research projects during these meetings, but also provide insights into their personal career paths and strategies used in the context of their successful career/family management.
Equipment for Home office
In order to facilitate the work for pregnant PhD students and PhD students on maternity leave, STRESSistance will provide them with equipment for home office. This will allow them doing e.g. literature review, data analysis, participation in online events and writing at home.
Support by scientific assistants
We will recruit scientific assistants, who, of course under the guidance of the respective PhD students, will conduct experiments in the lab, pregnant women are not allowed to. With such support our trainees will have the possibility to loose as little time as possible due to their pregnancy.
Babysitter-Service during RTG events
We will enable our nursing PhD students and such on parental leave to participate in our events (also in those lasting several days) by covering the expenses for a person to look after the babies during the scientific program. Furthermore we will keep these PhD students informed about other interesting events and hope that due to this constant contact, reentering the group will be facilitated.