On March 18, 2025 the international conference Breaking BAIS took place at the Technical University of Munich. The event brought together experts and guests from science, business, politics and media to discuss strategies for increasing the visibility of women. Around 700 people took part, exchanged expertise and took advantage of the opportunity to network.

Key topics of the conference
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One focus of the conference was on the structural barriers faced by women in public perception and on strategies to reduce them. Studies show that women are still underrepresented in science, business and politics and are often stereotyped. In order to counteract this problem, targeted measures were discussed:
- Media partnerships and networks: Women should be more heavily represented as experts in reporting.
- Mentoring programs: Young female scientists, entrepreneurs and politicians benefit from targeted funding.
- Technological support: Tools such as the Gender Equality Tech Tool (GETT) (Germany), the Gender Gap Tracker (Canada) or EqualVoice (Switzerland) can help to make gender relations measurable in reporting.

Diverse perspectives and impulses

The speakers discussed various aspects of visibility and equality. A particular focus was on:
- Gender-sensitive research that can not only save lives but also bring economic benefits.
- Prejudices in media and business that influence the perception of women.
- Diversity in companies and an inclusive management culture, which are crucial not only for greater equality but also for economic success.

International best practices showed that targeted diversity strategies are crucial not only to promote a fairer society but also innovative and successful companies. This is reflected in financial figures and measurably improved culture.

The Breaking BAIS conference made it clear that the wider visibility of women in science, business and media is not only a question of justice, but can also promote innovative strength and social progress. The interdisciplinary exchange provided valuable impetus for future strategies and measures.

The conference was organized by the team from the IFIF project SESiWI — “Structural increase of visibility of female scientists at universities, research institutions and in traditional and digital media” from TU Munich. The project is part of the funding guideline “Innovative Women in Focus” of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and is actively committed to strengthening the visibility of women in science.

28.11.2024 W:Science Online Workshop
As part of the SESiwi project, we held the W:Science online workshop on the topic of “Visibility of Innovative Women” on November 28, 2024. As a team, the workshop not only gave us the opportunity to present our work and progress, but also to actively exchange ideas with the participants and discuss different perspectives.

Visibility challenge
At the beginning, we explained the reasons for the lack of visibility of female scientists. A key point was that women are often underrepresented in the media and are portrayed differently from men - whether by focusing on their appearance or the lack of presence in expert roles. These findings were supported by studies and examples that showed how powerful stereotypical representations can be.

Presentation of the Gender Equality Tech Tool (GETT)
A highlight of the workshop was the presentation of the Gender Equality Tech Tool (GETT). The tool was developed to measure and analyze women's visibility in the media. GETT uses AI and NLP to search reports and determine, for example, how often women are mentioned or quoted in specific departments. It was exciting for many participants to see how visual representations such as time series analyses and distribution diagrams can make the problem tangible. We also explained how we work with the data obtained to provide media companies with practical recommendations and to make their reporting more diverse.

Practical Approaches for Better Visibility
An important part of the workshop was the discussion of possible solutions. For example, it was shown how targeted cooperation between science and media can increase the visibility of women scientists. Another topic was target agreements with organizations that have an interest in anchoring equality in their reporting.
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Visibility challenges and opportunities
Finally, we talked about the effects of visibility — both the positive effects, such as more recognition and role models, as well as the challenges that women must face in public. In doing so, it was important for us to also hear critical questions and to enter into dialogue.

The workshop was a successful step to further promote the topic of visibility of innovative women. It was motivating to see how well the content was received and how many participants were able to identify with the approaches presented. For us as a team, it was confirmation that our work with GETT and the W:Science community is on the right track to initiate sustainable change.

On 07.05.2024, we held a virtual workshop entitled “W:SCIENCE WORKSHOP: Strategies for successful presentation in media.”, which was attended by around 40 participants. In the workshop, Edith Heitkämper, CEO of ProQuote and ARD journalist, conducted media training on how to successfully portray innovative women in the media. The media training included several interactive exercises with participants, including elevator pitch, breathing techniques, relaxation exercises and voice training. In addition, they practiced how to deal with critical interview questions and shared best practice experiences. Our GETT team then presented the state of development of the GETT. The presentation of the GETT tool was met with a very positive response.

04.03.24 Persönliche Konferenz: Spitzenpositionen im Fokus
‍Am 04. März 2024 fand von 09:30 - 18:00 Uhr die erste persönliche Konferenz für unser Projekt SESiWi in München statt. Unter dem Motto „Spitzenpositionen im Fokus: Frauen aus Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft in den Medien“ trafen sich Wissenschaftler*innen, Medienschaffende, Manager*innen und weitere interessierten Personen, um sich über Gleichberechtigung in den Medien auszutauschen, mehr über den aktuellen Forschungsstand und über Praxisbeispiele für eine geschlechtergerechte Berichterstattung zu erfahren.

So bot Prof. Dr. Isabell Welpe einen Einblick in den aktuellen Stand der Forschung und Friederike Sittler (Journalistinnenbund) stellte das Projekt “Bildermächtig” vor, mit dem eine zeitgemäße und gendergerechte Bildsprache in den Medien gefördert werden soll. Darüber hinaus teilten Barbara Junge (taz), Kati Degenhardt (Bild) und Kristin Haug (SPIEGEL), was ihre Medienhäuser bereits jetzt tun, um die Sichtbarkeit von Frauen zu fördern. Des Weiteren sprachen u.a. Prof Dr. Carola Jungwrith und Sabine Eckhardt über ihre persönlichen Erfahrungen mit der eigenen medialen Darstellung. Den Tagesabschluss bildete Vertr.-Prof. Dr. Tanja Maier mit ihrer Keynote zu einem Einblick in die Geschlechterpolitik.

29.11.2023 First virtual W:Science conference
The kick-off event for our SESiWI project took place on November 29 from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The event was titled “W:Science” and addressed the question of how visible innovative women are in the media and how they are portrayed.

At our virtual conference, speakers presented existing opportunities and initiatives to measure women's visibility in the media. For example, Lea Eberle presented EqualVoice, an initiative of the Swiss media group Ringier, Miranda Holt talked about the BBC's 50:50 Equality Project and Maite Taboada presented the gender gap tracker, which measures the visibility of women in Canadian media. Christoph May from the Institute for Critical Men's Research gave us a brief digression of how men are also portrayed clichéd in the media. It was then about the question of how innovative women can become more visible. Kristin Küter spoke about women in science communication and the challenges they face, Kathrin Werner presented ProQuote media. Iris Bohnet, Frank Dobbin and Oliver Hauser also provided insights into their research on diversity, bias and stereotypes. The last component of our kick-off event was the presentation of our research project SESiW and the “Gender Equality Tech Tool” (GETT), about which you here be able to find out more.