Equal Opportunities
The provision of equal opportunities for men and women is a key factor in increasing research and teaching quality over the long term; by implementing targeted equal opportunity measures, LMU Munich is able to guarantee that the potential of its existing talent is utilized to the full, in addition to establishing a major advantage in the face of global competition. As early as 1994, the Board of University Representatives passed “Recommendations for Equal Opportunities for Men and Women in Study, Research and Teaching.”
Since that time LMU Munich has launched numerous measures which promote equal opportunities for men and women at all academic and administrative levels and which assist academics in combining family and career. LMUexcellent in particular has formulated a wide range of strategies. It defines gender mainstreaming as a university-wide interdisciplinary task encompassing support for junior academics, recruiting, advanced training, and quality assurance. The constitution of LMU Munich establishes gender mainstreaming as a guiding principle for all university bodies and boards. LMU Munich has also set itself the target of increasing its proportion of new women appointees to one-quarter and women professorship candidates to at least one-third by 2013.
By these measures, LMU Munich has already implemented many of the standards prescribed by the German Research Foundation in its “Research-Oriented Gender Equality Standards.” The “Total E-Quality Award”, promoted by the German Ministry of Family Affairs and the Ministry of Education and Research and awarded to LMU Munich in June 2009, strengthens the university’s resolve to pursue and maintain its goal of gender equality. As a formal expression of its commitment to inclusiveness in its organizational culture, LMU signed the Charter of Diversity in September 2011. In doing so, LMU acknowledges that, in addition to gender, other distinctive attributes – ethnicity or disability, for example – may contribute to forming an individual’s personality and must be respected. The goal is to ensure that every member of the LMU community can work and learn in an environment that values and respects diversity, where all can develop their potential to the full.
The Corporate Charter of Diversity Initiative ("Charta der Vielfalt") was launched by Daimler, BP Europa SE (formerly Deutsche BP), Deutsche Bank and Deutsche Telekom in December 2006. Since then, over 1100 companies and public institutions have formally espoused the aims set out in the Charter. The Initiative also enjoys the full support of the Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees, and Integration, Prof. Dr. Maria Böhmer. The Federal Chancellor, Dr. Angela Merkel, is Patron of the Initiative.
