Gender-Balanced Composition of Collegial Bodies

It is legally determined in the Universities Act 2002 that collegial bodies at Universities shall consist of at least 50% women:

Gender-Balanced Composition of Collegial Bodies (§ 20a Universities Act 2002):

§ 20a. (1) § 20a shall apply to all collegial bodies established hereunder as well as under the organisation plan and the statute of the university, unless otherwise provided hereunder. Examination boards shall be excluded from this provision.

(2) All collegial bodies under para. 1 shall consist of at least 50% women. For collegial bodies with an unequal number of members, this proportion shall be calculated by reducing the total number of members by one and calculating the required proportion of women from this number.

(3) Both the senate and the Federal Government shall give regard to para. 2 when electing or appointing members of the university council.

(4) The list of candidates included in the election proposals for the representatives to be elected for the groups under § 25 para. 4 subparas. 1, 2 and 3 shall be prepared in a way that at least 50% women are in electable positions. This shall also apply to the election of substitute members. Para. 2, second sentence, shall apply. If the working group on equal opportunities does not raise objections against the inadequacy of the election proposals according to § 42 para. 8d, the senate elected on the basis of these election proposals shall be deemed to be correct with respect to para. 2.

For more information on the gender-balanced composition of collegial bodies please have a look at our German website.