Equal Opportunities

Short about equality in KSETA

We CONSULT on the topics:
- Equality for women and men
- PhD while having children
- Women in science
We ENCOURAGE key skill courses: You want to do a work life balance course and you haven't found accomodation in KHYS? Contact us! We can interfere and provide financial support. For a large amount of interested participants of KSETA we offer courses.
We SUPPORT childcare during business trips as well as extra hours outside the core hours of your day care. You want to participate in a conference but you don't know where to leave your child? Contact us! Together with you we develop a self-caring concept and we offer substantial financial support.
We ARE THERE: A PhD while you are having a child or simply being a woman in a male-dominated field can be very difficult sometimes. The challenges you have to deal with are very complex and individual. We help you to find individual solutions that fit with your circumstances! Talk to us!

You have ideas for softskill courses which focus on topics like "Women in Science" or "Family and Work"?
We organise and finance courses of this type.
You are doing your PhD but you also have a child and you want to work at least three mornings at home?
We provide you with a home office equipment, talk to us!
Another stupid comment from your supervisor?
Where different generations and cultures work together there are clashes of different role models. We advise you and mediate in case of a conflict and thus try to find stategies for a solution.
You wonder whether your wish of having a child will interfere with your PhD? Organising the daycare of your child is more difficult than what you thought?
We cannot offer a regular childcare but we can provide financial and organisational support in emergency cases (care outside of core hours, business trip, etc.). Some of us are parents and can pass their experiences to you, provide helpful tips, or establish contact to other parents.
We want to help you, but we cannot solve problems that we don't know about. Talk to us early! Confidentially or anonymously, if you want. The sooner you indicate the difficulties, the easier it will be to find solutions.

More concretely:
KSETA finances a nanny for the annual doctoral workshop in Freudenstadt. If you are interested to bring your child, please contact us.
KSETA fireside-chat: The fireside-chats are inofficial meetings where we invite two young scientists. In a personal atmosphere these guests will discuss with you about their career, career moves, and personal decisions that have brought them to the position where they are now.
Unfortunately KSETA cannot finance daycare costs arising from childcare at usual times of the day and week. But we can take on additional costs for care at off-peak times or on weekends.

Wer wir sind
Iris Gebauer (Year 1982) received her PhD in 2010 at KIT. After a research period at the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics she returned to Karlsruhe where she has been leading the Young Investigator Group "CR Transport Models for Dark Matter Searches with AMS-02" since 2011. She is married, her husband is also a young scientist at KIT, and they have a daughter (born in July 2012). "I became KSETA Equal Opportunity Officer because as a mother of a small child I am very familiar with the problems but also the opportunities that parents have at KIT. I believe that within KSETA we have the unique opportunity to improve singnificantly the reconciliation of family and research for our PhD students."
Tanja Harbaum (Year 1984) studied computer science at KIT and completed her diploma thesis at ITIV. During her studies, she had three children (2007, 2008 and 2011) and since 2013 she is doing her PhD in electrical engineering. "It is always a challenge to combine work and family life. During my studies and my PhD, I learned a lot and I would like to pass on my experiences. I want to support other students with children and I want to encourage them to realize their professional potential."
Daniela Schäfer
Edmund Blomley