Can you name an important female bridge or tunnel builder? No? Unfortunately, neither can most of the experts - and that is about to change. After the application and preparation phase, the content of the mentoring program "Breaking the Glass Ceiling - Early Installation of Professional Networks for Women Engineers" has now begun: The mentees have met their mentors. With the program, the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering aims to provide its female master's students, above all, with support from experienced female leaders in "typical" male domains. Now the first metaphorical bridges have been built - time for a first conclusion.

"We want all people at Ruhr-Universität to be able to develop their talents, regardless of gender, origin or family background," emphasized Dr. Isolde Karle, Vice Rector for Diversity, Inclusion and Talent Development, in her welcoming speech at the official start of the program. The fact that minorities sometimes have to overcome major hurdles in the process is unfortunately still fact. In the engineering programs of the faculty, for example, this is noticeable by the fact that although almost 40% of the first-year students are female - only just under a quarter of the doctorates and less than a fifth of the professorships in these subjects are achieved by women. Yet women do not graduate with poorer grades by any means. Often, it's other factors that keep them from confidently pursuing careers in their fields.

Prof. Dr. Henne-Bruns was able to shed light on exactly what these factors look like for women in typical male domains in her lecture. The former medical director of Ulm University Hospital was the first C4 ordinaria in surgery in Germany in 2001 and has been campaigning for gender-equitable working conditions and appointment procedures for years. "On average, women have to be 2.5 times more productive to be rated as equally competent as their male competitors in application procedures," Prof. Henne-Bruns explained the current study situation. At the same time, she gave encouragement and pointed out concrete success factors for women in male-dominated professional fields: In addition to a realistic self-confidence, a strong support network is particularly important.

The BreakING mentoring program aims to create the basis for this by providing female master's students with a mentor who has already made her way in an "atypical" industry. At the same time, during the program's nearly one-year duration, the mentees receive custom-fit coaching to help them present themselves in an authentic and self-efficacious manner.

"Of course, I immediately pledged support for the project on behalf of the faculty," confirms Dean Prof. Dr. Markus Knobloch, who also sees the mentees as bridge-builders to a more diverse future for the industry. "When we think of real bridges, probably no one can name a renowned female designer right off the bat. I wish the mentees a future where that is different."