Reactions to discussions on gender equality in the workplace are as diverse as the challenges presented in this context. The initiators of this digital ideation hackathon have experienced everything. A recent report published by the German-Swedish Allbright Foundation Stiftung shows that the proportion of women on German DAX boards is still low in a global comparison, and has in fact declined significantly since the outbreak of the pandemic. Beyond that, there are still many challenges for more gender equality in the workplace for both men and women. The digital hackathon aims to develop concrete ideas for improvement.

The focus of the event on November 6, 2020, is on generating ideas and strategies. When registering, anyone interested can apply to work on a challenge proposed on the event website or contribute their own ideas. Different teams will be put together on this basis. Throughout the day the teams will be guided by experienced coaches to develop their own strategies for overcoming the challenges and then to present them to a jury. At the end, prizes will be awarded to facilitate the implementation of the proposed strategies. The prizes include coaching sessions with experienced entrepreneurs, access to an entrepreneurship online course, membership in a co-working space aimed at gender parity, a voucher for a design thinking workshop, and a coffee chat with the Founder of a gender equality agency. The aim is to help prepare all interested participants for submitting their strategies in the Berlin-Brandenburg business plan competition. In September 2020, Freie Universität Berlin was designated a “Berlin think tank” for the eighth time in the Berlin-Brandenburg business plan competition in recognition of the outstanding support it provides for start-ups.

The event partners include Profund Innovation and the Margherita von Brentano Center, both based at Freie Universität Berlin, the Einstein Center Digital Future, the Co-Working-Space CoWomen UG, and the men’s movement HeforShe, which is sponsored by the United Nations.

The project organizers include Dr. Isabell Stamm (sociologist, Technische Universität Berlin), Prof. Dr. Annekatrin Hoppe (Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Prof. Dr. Hannes Rothe (Information Systems, Freie Universität Berlin), Prof. Dr. Michelle Christensen (Visiting Professorship, Open Science, Technische Universität Berlin), Prof. Dr. Florian Conradi (Visiting Professorship, Open Science, Technische Universität Berlin), and Dr. Heike Pantelmann (Director, Margherita von Brentano Center, Freie Universität Berlin).

The project is being funded by the Berlin University Alliance, a University Consortium of Excellence consisting of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, which won funding in the German government’s Excellence Strategy. The funding was granted through the Grand Challenge Initiative Social Cohesion. For more informationen, see www.berlin-university-alliance.de/en.