On this year's International Women's Day, 8 March 2023, TUM sheds light on the "Career Paths of Strong TUM Women". We take this opportunity to look at the representation of women at the TUM Graduate School. Currently, 40% of the doctoral candidates at the TUM are women, and the TUM Department of Sports and Health Sciences (64%) as well as the TUM School of Medicine (63%) are particularly well represented.* But we also wanted to ask two strong TUM women themselves: Anna Jäkel and Ayesha Müller-Wolfertshofer. Together, they form the first female speakers team of the TUM Graduate Council since 2015.
Do you feel that the representation and visibility of women at TUM is improving, especially when it comes to female scientists?
“Yes, we do feel that the representation and visibility of women at the TUM is improving. Take the School of Engineering and Design for example, where Ayesha is a doctoral candidates’ representative; last term there was just one woman voted as a representative but this term there are three female representatives. This phenomenon can be observed across all Schools, resulting in the current Graduate Council comprising of more female than male members (approx. 57% women, 43% men).”
What's your message to your fellow female doctoral candidates at TUM?
“Dare to dream: you will never know what you can accomplish until you try.”
Today, we want to celebrate the career paths of strong TUM women in various events together with the TUM community, and at the same time continue to work on ensuring equal opportunities and promoting diversity among TUM doctoral candidates.
* Data on TUM-GS members who entered the doctoral candidacy list after Jan 1, 2014 (analysis from Feb 1, 2023)