Why is an AKCP needed?

Gender equality and the creation of equal opportunities is the goal of international political agendas and is, for example, the aim of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Overall, the number of female students in Austria is 55% in average since 2009/2010, which indicates generally a high level of equal opportunities in education (source: Statistik Austria).

The fact that equal opportunities and gender equality in physics have also improved in recent decades, but are still far from being achieved, can be seen in the following figures, among others (reporting date 28.02.2023, source: unidata.gv.at):

• Proportion of women in Bachelor's degree in Physics (Austria-wide):  30,3%
• Proportion of women in Master's degree in Physics (Austria-wide):  24,6%
• Percentage of women in physics teacher training (Bachelor's degree, Austria-wide): 33,9%
• Percentage of women in physics teacher training (Master's degree, Austria-wide) : 37,4%

The number of female students and scientists in physics decreases as the academic career progresses. This indicates a particularly high need for improvement for women in physics in terms of career and promotion opportunities: the average number of female professors and associate professors at Austrian universities is around 12% (as of 2023).

The advantages of eliminating stereotypical job profiles and the resulting diversity in working groups are manifold:

• Diversity boosts innovation, productivity and quality of solutions
• Diverse workgroups can outperform the "lone genius with a high IQ"
• Gender diversity increases the "collective intelligence" of work groups
• Homogeneity can hinder the exchange of different ideas