FHV studies as a network

Keyword equality: What do you wish for? That women simply do what they want and enjoy doing - regardless of ascribed roles or social expectations. At the FHV, 48 percent of students are currently female. In the area of research, we have a 40 percent share of women in heads. We are extremely well positioned in terms of equality. This is not just lip service, but we really stand behind the issues of diversity and equal treatment. I would like to see this for all areas of society.  

What are your thoughts on female solidarity and networking? We women need to be more aware that we are not alone. We should support each other and use synergies and networks so that we can balance family and career well. This also includes asking for support from your partner and sharing the domestic work equally.  It is extremely important that women take care of their own qualifications and further development. This provides the basis for a qualified job that is fun and financially rewarding. By studying at the FHV, our female students form valuable networks - on the one hand among themselves, but also with numerous stakeholders from Business and Management and society. This is social capital from which they benefit for a lifetime.  

You yourself started your university career 40 years ago as a mother of two. Today, as FHV Rector, you are responsible for the quality of teaching and driving forward the teaching of future skills. How were you able to reconcile education, career and family? After graduating from high school, I had many interests, but no concrete plan. I only knew that I wanted children. I also became a mother at 21. After that, I had the opportunity to study psychology and later to do a doctorate.  But that was only possible because the university in Bremen already offered childcare at the time. That was the basis, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to study. We parents also supported each other with childcare and set up childcare facilities ourselves.  

What does the FHV offer in terms of childcare? We were recently certified as a family-friendly university for the fifth time in a row. We make childcare accessible to both students and employees. Among other things, the FHV offers proactive parental leave and time off management, a generous flexitime framework combined with home office options and childcare places.  Supporting offers in the area of mobility, such as the job bike, reserved parking spaces for parents in emergency situations and psychosocial counseling and coaching offers are further examples of the diverse expansion of the offer to reconcile work, family and private life.  

What advice do you have for young women? Just do it, realize your personal goals! Of course, it is very exhausting for a while to juggle studying or training, family and a job - I can confirm that. But you learn to organize yourself incredibly well and to use synergies. I am, for example, an artist of effective use of time, because I have always had this need. 

Of course, you will never achieve perfection across the board. But it is important to do something for your own qualifications and further development, also with regard to financial provision. Otherwise the price would be incredibly high - you have to think about that. One day the children will be out of the house and at 45 or 50, life is still long. In the end, these strenuous years are worth it. They are the foundation for doing a job that you enjoy - for as long as you want.