Female Professors Programme (PP)

The federal and state governments have jointly developed the Female Professors Programme (PP) to increase the proportion of women in top academic positions at German universities. The programme works on two levels: it increases the number of female professors in Germany and strengthens gender equality structures at universities through specific measures.
The ‘Professorinnenprogramm 2030’ (Female Professors Programme 2030) will start in 2023, the fourth phase of the programme with a duration of eight years until 2030.The 2030 equality concept submitted by Leuphana was positively assessed in February 2024.

With the Female Professors Programme I, which has been funded to date by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture (MWK), Leuphana University has attracted a total of 1.3 million euros in third-party funding, a further 1.5 million euros in Female Professors Programme II and 2.1 million euros in Female Professors Programme III.

Within the framework of the Female Professors Programme I, three regular professorships were funded from April 2010 to December 2015:

Prof. Dr. Alexandra Klein, formerly in the Chair of Ecosystem Functions
Prof. Dr. Anne Barron in the subject ‘English Linguistics’ and
Prof. Dr. Beate Söntgen in the subject ‘Art History’.
Article from the Landeszeitung newspaper (German).

The 2014 equality concept was approved, resulting in the approval of proportional funding for a further three regular professorships for five years in the Female Professors Programme II: 

From 1 Oktober 2014 Prof. Dr. Christina Wessely ‘Cultural History of Knowledge’
from 1 November 2014 Prof. Dr. Marion Reiser, formerly in the subject ‘Political System of the Federal Republic of Germany’ and
from 1 April 2015  Prof. Dr. Vicky Temperton ‘Ecology, in particular ecosystem functions’.

The future equality concept submitted in May 2018 as part of the Professorinnenprogramm III (Female Professors Programme III) was approved in January 2019 and awarded the rating ‘Excellent’.
Proportional funding over five years was approved for the following full professors:

From 1 July.2019  Prof. Dr. Jelena Bäumler ‘Public Law, specialising in Sustainability Law’ and 
from 1 November 2019 Prof. Dr. Anke Karber ‘Social Padagogy,specialising in Vocational Training Research’
from 1 December 2020 Prof. Dr. Monika Imschloß"Marketing" (Vorgriffsprofessur)
from 1 March 2021 Prof. Dr. Andrea Kretschmann 'Cultural Sociology'.

Further information on the current programme is available from the BMBF.