Mentoring has a long tradition in academia, especially in the area of promoting women. Mentoring programmes are "recognised instruments of gender-equitable and diversity-oriented personnel development at universities and thus indicators of innovation and excellence."[2] They enable women to counteract the structural mechanisms of exclusion and same-sex inclusion[3] within universities and scientific communities through intensive networking and the transfer of informal knowledge. Within a personal mentoring partnership, perspectives can develop, career paths can be aligned according to individual talents and abilities and an adequate entry into the profession can take place.[4] "While mentees primarily expand their knowledge of career management, work-life balance and of structures, processes and rules in the academic system, mentors expand their counselling and leadership skills and gain important insights into the situation of young female academics."[5]

In addition to mentoring partnerships, the broad framework programme of the Equal Opportunities Office, consisting of further training events, workshops, lectures, network meetings and individual support offers, funds female scientists at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg through the targeted creation of spaces for exchange within and beyond peer groups. Funded by the Female Professors Programme III, this is a women-only support programme with the aim of increasing the visibility of female academics, boosting women's self-confidence in the academic world and preventing cooling-out processes [6]. A disproportionate number of women leave the academic world after completing their final degree or doctoral studies. The status passages between the individual qualification steps of an academic career "represent neuralgic points for women, because this is where career orientations and generative decisions overlap. The transition decision is influenced not only by the experience of the previous qualification phase, but also by the anticipated biographical consequences of the subsequent phase."[7] While there is still almost parity between the sexes at the final degree, the transition between studies and doctoral studies represents the "gateway", "which is passed by significantly fewer women than men".[8] The same applies to the period between the postdoc phase and appointment, in which female scientists are confronted with the often ambivalent challenges of the academic system and in which there is a lack of reliable recommendations for action[9].

This is where mentoring for women at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg comes in. We want to support (prospective) female doctoral candidates and women in the post-doc phase in confidently pursuing their path in science.

The Equal Opportunities Office's mentoring programme is made up of five key areas: further training, individual support, one-to-one mentoring, visibility and networks (Figure 1).

Continuing education

The area of continuing education includes both the services offered by the Equal Opportunities Office at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg as well as the provision of external offers and cooperation with the Centre for Continuing Education at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg. In the area of continuing education, we support female academics with our own needs-oriented offer, as well as by arranging external training courses and providing financial support for participation in continuing education within the framework of the guidelines of the programme funding of the Women Professors Programme III.

Individual support

As part of the mentoring programme for women at BTU, we support female academics with a variety of individual support options. These include the provision of individual coaching as well as support in the form of scholarships and grants.

One-to-one mentoring

A mentoring partnership supports female academics by imparting informal knowledge in a joint "hierarchy-free development process in which there is no relationship of dependency between mentee and mentor"[10]. The matching process is carried out on the mentee's own initiative and is supported by the programme coordination of the Equal Opportunities Office in cooperation with the dean's offices of the faculties at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg. In a counselling session, the expectations of the one-to-one mentoring are discussed, support needs are identified and matching with a suitable mentor is initiated. Once the mentoring partnership has been successfully established, the tandem determines the scope and duration of the mentoring relationship together with the programme coordinator. The Equal Opportunities Office supports the successful development of the programme by providing additional services in the form of workshops and coaching for the mentoring pairs.

Visibility

The visibility component of the programme aims to make female scientists at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg more visible within the university and beyond, thereby emphasising the role of women in science and raising public awareness. To this end, in addition to subsidising print publications, special offers in the area of media skills are being developed to train participants in dealing with the various formats (radio, television, social media). This module also offers the opportunity to document and publish current research topics in a professional production, e.g. as an audio or video format. Existing formats at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg (e.g. interviews with alumnae and award winners) will be increasingly integrated into the website of the Equal Opportunities Office and published. A platform presenting female professors at BTU is currently being developed. The Equal Opportunities Office also supports BTU female scientists within the Visibility module in the organisation of events (e.g. lectures, expert discussions) in order to make their current research results accessible to a wider (university) public and funds women who are involved in university committees.

Networks

All FEM*Vision mentoring activities are integrated into various networks. In addition to the Visionärinnen*Salon, which acts as the programme's own networking format for participants and interested women from business and civil society, the Equal Opportunities Office works closely with the Unit for Young Academics, the STEM Ambassadors and the Alumni Office of BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg. There is also a separate network for female professors at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg to fund academic exchange across disciplinary boundaries. As part of the mentoring programme, we offer BTU female academics access to the existing BTU networks by establishing contacts and organising network meetings for the respective peer groups together with the departments involved. Beyond the BTU, we support the networking of BTU female scientists in their scientific communities by financially supporting their participation in scientific conferences.