Strong Women – Strong Connections

Since 2006, RWTH has been one of the partnering universities in the Femtec Network, a career-building program specifically for female students in STEM fields. The unique thing about this program? It is set up to run alongside studies, focusing on connecting female students from leading technical universities with partners from science, industry, and research right from the start. The program is coordinated by Femtec GmbH in Berlin, an organization that emerged from Technische Universität Berlin. Participating in this program allows women with a passion for technology to set the course for a successful career in science or business while still at university.

After two and a half years of coronavirus restrictions, a large multi-day network meeting could finally be held again in Berlin in September 2022. "I am very pleased that RWTH Aachen University and careers in science received special attention at the event this year. We even played a particularly active role in shaping the network meeting – we hosted the doctoral workshop, participated in the trade fair, were involved in the farewell speech to the course graduates, and we won the award this year," says Bianca Lenz, a member of staff at the Career Center and Femtec University Coordinator at RWTH.

The doctoral candidates Shari Wlecke, Hendrik Lauf – both from the Chair of Production Engineering at WZL – and Alina Wildenberg, from the Chair of High Pressure Gas Dynamics, gave presentations emphasizing doctoral studies as a good career path option. They addressed the prospective scholarship holders from all the various partner universities in both a workshop and at the subsequent fair. They were well prepared to answer the wide range of questions directed at them by the female students. This also showed the power of RWTH's internal network: Thanks to Anja Robert, coordinator of the RWTH Career Center, Andrea Dohms, gender representative from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, and Katrin Dobbelstein, head of the career pool at WZL, preparing for the network meeting was a breeze.

This year's prize in the Social Impact category was awarded to the Forum for Female Doctoral Candidates (DokForum) at RWTH. The group was thrilled! DokForum is an independent and self-organized network of young female scientists at RWTH featuring doctoral candidates from all university faculties. At regular meetings, these young women have a chance to share and discuss their views on various issues ranging from specialist topics to their personal experiences of pursuing a doctorate in a subject in which women are clearly in the minority. Fun and leisure are also important for them, so group activities such as bowling are often planned.

DokForum is also great for international female scientists new to Aachen, as it allows them to meet people through an established network and joint activities. "Our forum has existed since 2005 and is the only interdisciplinary network specifically for female doctoral candidates at RWTH. Especially during the pandemic years, it was noticeable how much it meant to the members to have this level of trust with others where they could talk about the challenges they encountered in their doctoral studies, or had the chance to meet up with like-minded people. It is wonderful that this supportive influence of the network is now recognized and made more visible to the outside world thanks to the Femtec Award," says the group’s representative Sandra Kiefer. "DokForum’s success is certainly due to and depends on the lively participation of its members. New faces are always welcome!" If you are interested in joining the group, Sandra Kiefer would love to hear from you. Please send an email to: kiefer@informatik.rwth-aachen.de. or join via the website at: rwth-aachen.de/dokforum.

University management also encourages and supports the program. Professor Sabine Brück-Dürkop, Vice-Rector for Human Resources Management and Development, succeeded Professor Doris Klee as Vice-Chair of the Femtec Advisory Board last year. As can also be seen on the Femtec homepage, advancing the careers of women is very important to Professor Ulrich Rüdiger, Rector of RWTH, and it is a declared goal of the university: "RWTH is proud to be educating excellent young people. Gender and diversity are significant issues for us at RWTH because we want to help all our students succeed and tap into their full potential."

Empower. Connect. Inspire... that is the promise of Femtec. Bianca Lenz enthusiastically summarizes her impressions of this year's network meeting in Berlin: „The empowering energy of a strong network was very tangible at the Femtec-Event: Inspiring conversations, numerous new connections, and seeing highly motivated female STEM students who have left their comfort zone and excelled... the long journey to Berlin was definitely worth it."

Each semester, the Femtec Career-Building Program looks for new female Master's students who are enthusiastic about STEM subjects and wish to participate. Check out the femtec.org page if you are interested. Or feel free to contact RWTH's Femtec coordinator, Bianca Lenz, by sending her an email: femtec@rwth-aachen.de.

– Bianca Lenz