Fall 2010 marks the ten year anniversary of CEWS – Center of Excellence Women and Science. For this occasion Research Special put together this documentation of literature and research projects on the topic “Women in Science and Research” spanning the years 2000 – 2010.

The nine chapters reflect the main pillars of research on science-related equal opportunity topics thereby offering a comprehensive overview on social science literature and research references over the past decade.

The focus is first on literature analyzing career paths in science – generally and related to individual subjects (groups) – in gender comparison, on the differences in chances on the job market and with respect to obtaining leadership positions. Structural and socio-political, as well as individual barriers are examined, the situation in universities and non-university affiliated research institutions like in industrial research is looked at, and there is also information on career paths in the former GDR in gender comparison.

The awareness that the scientific culture, in scientific organizations in particular, must change to get closer to the goal of gender equality is documented. Society’s image of “good scientists” has to change to make a work-life-balance possible for both sexes working in science.

Universities, as hubs for research and teaching, play a decisive role, in the sense of an equal opportunity partner, in improving the situation of women scientists, and therefore the university reforms must be universally gender sensitive.

Equal opportunity policy and measures for women scientists have had a huge impact over twenty years, and thus represent a focus of this chapter in literature research, the results of which are also critically scrutinized here.

Gender equality is the higher philosophy of law goal of all of these activities; the tense relationship between the categories law and gender is the topic of many publications on equal opportunity law.

The specialized, experts cultures in natural sciences and technology present a special situation for women looking to make a career in these areas, and for this reason a separate chapter is dedicated to this sub-area.

Gender aspects must universally and constantly be taken into account in research and teaching to be able to guarantee true gender equality of the scientific establishment.

The European comparison of the situation of women in science found in the European research area is indispensible for assessing the German situation, and therefore a chapter is also devoted to this line of research.

The final chapter offers a compilation of social science research projects on the topics surrounding women in science and research to document these as well.

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