In the period under review 2007-2008, gender equality at RheinMain University improved conspicuously. While the proportion of women professors rose only from 13.2 % in 2004 to 13.5 percent in 2006, the percentage has now considerably increased to 16.7 %. This change is also reflected in the positions for dean. Of the six faculties, two are headed by a female deans as well as female deans for academic affairs. Significantly, one of these faculties is the Faculty of Engineering.

RheinMain University also created several doctoral positions in the reporting period 2007-2008. Of these, 66 % have been filled with women. For instance, in the doctoral program of the Geisenheim faculty, four of the positions have been filled with women.

On the one hand, most of the female staff at the university is still to be found in the salary classification categories BAT VII to V, and here a high percentage of employees works part-time. However, the proportion of women in the upper-level qualifications could be increased significantly. The current proportion is between 40 and 50 %, and in the classification category Ib it is even 57 %.

In 2007, the Award for the Promotion of Gender Equality at RheinMain University, which comes with a 6,000 euro purse and supports oustanding projects that markedly advance gender equality, has been awarded for the fourth time. This time, thee recipients were distinguished with the award.

1. For increasing the proportion of women among laboratory engineers and for its excellent working time coordination for part-time employees with children the area Mathematics of the Department of Environmental Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering was awarded 500 euros.

2. The Computer Science Department of the Faculty of Design – Computer Science – Media received 2,500 euros. The department was honored for its information events during Girls' Day that specifically target girls of the grades five to ten and for the "Getting a whiff of IT" days for women high school students of the eleventh and twelfth grades.

3. The dining hall of the Kurt-Schumacher-Ring campus in Wiesbaden received 3,000 euros. Its child-oriented furnishings and facilities as well as its child-friendly staff supports in particular students with children. This benefits especially women students in their efforts to balance the needs of their families with the requirements of their studies.

The dining hall leadership immediately used the prize money to equip a kids' corner.

At the beginning of 2008, the University Senate has adapted the criteria for awarding the prize so that not only completed measures, but also projects that are still in the planning stage can receive the award. The projects are meant to advance the promotion of women and gender equality and to facilitate combining work or study with having a family at RheinMain University. During the University Senate's session in December 2008, recipients of the Award for the Promotion of Gender Equality for the year 2008 will be selected, and the prize will be awarded at the beginning of 2009.

On March 26, 2007 RheinMain University (then still under its old name Fachhochschule Wiesbaden) received the first Audit Family-Friendly University Certificate. With its certificate, the not-for-profit organization berufundfamilie gGmbH certifies that the audit family-friendly university has successfully been carried out at RheinMain University. As part of the auditing process, existing family-oriented measures were evaluated and further targets for putting family-oriented study conditions and human resources policies that are sensitive to family issues in place were defined.

Among the goals that RheinMain University will strive to attain in the next three years are the following:

• Improving the situation of students with children at all three study locations
• Actively supporting employees with families
• Increasing the awareness for family issues among the university's senior administrators
• Using the university's website to improve the internal communication about combining family and career or studies at RheinMain University
• Intensifying the external communication of RheinMain University's commitment to creating a family-friendly campus for students and employees

Annual reporting to berufundfamilie gGmbH documents how far the goals the university has set for itself have been reached. Because of the university's dispersal across the three study locations Wiesbaden, Rüsselsheim and Geisenheim and the further spread over the three campuses in Wiesbaden, the implementation of the defined targets has turned out to be more difficult that initially expected.

To reach the university's goals, frequently intensive preliminary investigations need to be carried out. The results of these investigations are collected and analyzed by the Working Group on Gender Equality, which consults the project.

In the report to berufundfamilie gGmbH of May 2008, advances in the following areas of activities could be documented:

Working Times

The establishment agreement about flexible working times has been approved by the ministry and its technical implementation will begin by the end of 2008.

More flexible working times will enable all employees regardless of gender to influence their own working times, thus making it easier to organize working and leisure times as well as to combine work with having a family.

Human Resources Development

In Spring 2008, the university created a position for human resources development. The position is to further develop and implement concepts that were defined in the target agreements. These agreements comprise among other things the active support of employees with families, the identification of best practices that have proven to guarantee employees' successful integration of work and family life and the development of a personnel requirements portal.

The appointee for gender equality informs all university staff on parental leave about developments on campus and about continuing education offerings.

Leadership skills

Continuing education seminars have now included the cross-sectional issues of awareness of familiy-friendliness in their curriculum, and senior administrators now deliberately include this topic in the annual one-on-one staff appraisal meetings.

Service for Families

Since Easter 2007, a cooperative project of the Social Ministry of Hesse and the City of Wiesbaden allows children of all staff of the Land of Hesse and its subordinate departments and offices to participate in day care and activities for children during the school holidays. At RheinMain University, the Appointee for Gender Equality is also in charge of the child care offerings and access to the university. So far it has unfortunately not been possible to include the students of RheinMain University into the program as the Social Ministry does not provide any funding for vacation child care for children of students.

Both in the library and the dining hall at the Kurt-Schumacher-Ring campus location, kids' corners were established. Parents can borrow colored pencils, coloring books and other things for accompanying children in the S!C and in the library at the Rüsselsheim campus.

At the Kurt-Schumacher-Ring campus location, a diaper changing table was installed in the women's bathroom area next to the Audi-Max lecture hall.

For many of the intended measures that have resulted from the audit, first small steps toward implementation have been made, but no final or comprehensive outcomes have been achieved yet. The implementation needs to be prioritized in the upcoming two years so that the university can be certified "family-friendly university" after another re-auditing.

The cooperation with the Mentoring Network for Women in Science and Engineering of all universities and universities of applied sciences in Hesse was continued. Each year, four to five women students participate in the mentoring. However, more women students apply for inclusion in the network and the trainings as the participation in these features calls for only a modest expenditure of time and still allows the students to build professional networks.

In the year 2008, there was a further project for students of media and communications technology, computer science and media computer science: "Your Chance at the ZDF" Women students who are enrolled in technical programs get the opportunity to do an internship at the ZDF or to write a thesis during a practical semester at the ZDF. At an informational event, women students of RheinMain University are introduced to jobs in television production and to the prospects for women at the ZDF. They are given a tour of different work and production areas and can visit workplaces in various departments. They can talk to representatives of the different business areas, of the human resources department and the training and personnel development department. This informational event is to be repeated on an annual basis.