Women's representation
Promoting equal opportunities and changing structures

Women play a key role in the museum’s work – in research, collections, technical services and administration.

The Women’s Representative Committee is committed to promoting equal opportunities at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. Its aim is to improve access and career progression opportunities for women, increase the proportion of women in academic and managerial roles, and eliminate structural disadvantages.

Another key focus is on achieving a work-life balance for all staff. The work is based, amongst other things, on the Leibniz Association’s guidelines on equal opportunities and measures within the framework of the audit berufundfamilie®. The Women’s Representative supports these processes and assists staff with any questions or concerns.

Support and Development

The Women’s Representative Committee specifically supports women in their professional development. A key tool is the Women’s Promotion Fund. Among other things, it supports further training, research and conference trips, as well as collaborations.

In addition, the Women’s Representative provides information on further training and mentoring opportunities, such as programmes within the Leibniz Association. The aim is to support women on their path to specialist and leadership roles.

Equality Plan (EP)

Our Equality Plan is a strategic tool designed to ensure equal opportunities. It brings together measures for recruitment and staff development, supports a healthy work-life balance, promotes diversity and combats discrimination.

Despite a high overall proportion of women, women remain under-represented in senior academic positions. This is where the GEP comes in: it aims to reduce this imbalance and enhance the museum’s appeal as an employer.

A key tool is the cascade model. It defines target quotas for each qualification level, based on the proportion of women at the respective lower career level. In this way, we are gradually increasing the proportion of women in management and decision-making positions. In the long term, we aim for gender parity in leadership roles across research, administration and technical departments.

audit berufundfamilie®

The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin has been awarded the audit berufundfamilie® certificate on several occasions. This confirms our commitment to creating working conditions that are family-friendly and tailored to different stages of life.

The work-life balance is an integral part of our strategy. We promote a cooperative management culture based on teamwork, mutual respect and transparent communication. This is underpinned by binding structures and measures that we are continuously developing.

As an institution of the Leibniz Association, we contribute to a shared goal: creating good conditions for work-life balance for all employees.

Women's representation

Women's Representation Team