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, 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 that collaboration between science and media can help to increase the visibility of female scientists and women. Another topic to address 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 concerns 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.

04.03.24 Personal conference: Focus on top positions
‍On March 4, 2024, the first personal conference for our SESiWI project took place in Munich from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Under the Motto “Focus on top positions: women from science and business in the media” scientists, media professionals, managers and other interested people met to exchange ideas about equality in the media, learn more about the current state of research and practical examples of gender-equitable reporting.

Prof. Dr. Isabell Welpe offered an insight into the current state of research and Friederike Sittler (Association of Women Journalists) presented the project “Bildermächtig”, which aims to promote contemporary and gender-appropriate visual language in the media. Barbara Junge (taz), Kati Degenhardt (photo) and Kristin Haug (SPIEGEL) also shared what their media companies are already doing to promote women's visibility. Prof. Dr. Carola Jungwrith and Sabine Eckhardt, among others, spoke about their personal experiences with their own media presentation. The daily financial statements were made by Vertr. -Prof. Dr. Tanja Maier with her keynote speech on an insight into gender politics.

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.