Your choice, your future!
Empowerment Day

Bereich: Wissenschaft & Forschung
Thema: Hochschule, Wissenschaft
Typ: Veranstaltung
Zielgruppe: Wissenschaftler:innen

Empowerment Day – What It’s About

Around half of all students in Baden-Württemberg are women, yet women remain significantly underrepresented in professorships and leadership positions both within and beyond academia. To raise awareness of this gender imbalance and to encourage women in academia to actively shape their career paths, the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung hosts the Empowerment Day twice a year.

The next Empowerment Day will take place on Tuesday, November 17th, 2026.
It will be held in English and focus on the topic

Your choice, your future!
Shaping your scientific career.

Your scientific career is shaped by countless decisions, from choosing research directions and collaborations to pursuing opportunities that align with your goals, values, and personal circumstances. Learning how to make confident decisions, communicate them effectively, and navigate uncertainties, obstacles, and potential mistakes is essential for both professional success and personal growth.

This event offers a dedicated space to reflect on career aspirations, strengthening decision-making skills, and to engage in meaningful dialogue with peers at similar career stages. Bringing together early-career researchers from across Baden-Württemberg, the Empowerment Day fosters professional exchange, mutual learning, and valuable networks. Through participation in one of four interactive workshops as well as discussions with fellow researchers, you will gain practical tools, new perspectives, and the confidence to actively and strategically shape your future career.
Because your future will not be defined by chance, but by the choices you make!

The full program can be found here.

Only female students, doctoral candidates and postdocs from Baden-Württemberg universities and non-profit, non-university research institutions based in Baden-Württemberg can participate. All individuals who identify as women are warmly invited.

Registration

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Workshops Empowerment-Tag 17.11.2026

We all make mistakes. Yet, even though we know this basic truth, it can be challenging to deal with the consequences when a decision turns out to be wrong.
This workshop combines interesting theoretical background with hands-on practical work.

Through guided self-reflection, group training, and practical activities – including inspiring excercises deriving from improv theatre – we will explore on how we can respond to mistakes constructively: learning from what happened, taking responsibility, letting go of what cannot be changed, and focusing on the path forward.
In a playful and supportive space we will reflect on what we can learn from our mistakes and how we can turn setbacks into opportunities for growth.
Prior experience with improv theatre is NOT necessary – joyfullness is highly recommended.

Your trainer: Dagmar Holländer
Dagmar Holländer is a coach for Personal Growth & Project Management, a lawyer and PMP-certified Project Manager. She has a track record of stage appearance and loves to encourage and inspire women to step into their strengths and embrace new challenges.

Making good decisions is not the only part of professional life – being able to communicate and stand behind those decisions convincingly is equally important. This highly interactive workshop helps participants develop greater clarity, confidence, and impact when communicating decisions, recommendations, and positions in their professional environment.

Across three 90-minute sessions, participants will work on three complementary dimensions: expressing their own position with confidence, communicating complex decisions clearly and persuasively, and handling objections and challenging conversations constructively.

Through short inputs, practical exercises, reflection, role plays, and peer feedback, participants will learn how to structure convincing messages, use assertive language, and strengthen their impact through voice and body language. They will also practice presenting a decision or recommendation in a short, compelling pitch and defending their position in challenging conversations.

The workshop is strongly practice-oriented and draws on participants’ own professional situations. Participants will leave with practical tools and greater confidence to communicate decisions clearly, make their reasoning more compelling, respond effectively to counterarguments, and stand their ground while remaining open to dialogue.

Your trainer: Dr. Dorothee Kaiser
With a background in linguistics, Dorothee Kaiser has been working internationally for more than 15 years as a coach, trainer, facilitator, and keynote speaker in the areas of leadership development, intercultural competence, diversity, and communication. One of her greatest passions is supporting women in leadership positions, both in academic settings (universities, Max Planck Institutes, university hospitals) as well as in the corporate context and international NGOs.

This workshop offers an in-depth introduction to the German research and innovation landscape. Participants will gain insights into the structures and specific characteristics of conducting research at universities and the non-university institutions. In addition, the workshop addresses key professional competencies required for developing as an independent researcher and discusses strategic aspects of career planning within the German research system. The program is designed to support informed career decisions and to foster participants’ long-term professional growth.

The workshop combines a keynote presentation with interactive methods, including individual reflection, collaborative exercises, and the use of metaplan walls to capture, cluster, and jointly develop participants’ ideas and perspectives. 

Your trainer: Dr. Anke Soemer
Anke Soemer has been working at the Fraunhofer Society since 2015, most recently as Chief of Staff for the Executive Board for Research and Transfer. From 2000 to 2015, she worked at the Max Planck Society, where she served as Head of the Department for Young Scientists, the Max Planck Research Schools, and the Coordination of Presidential Commissions. She studied public administration and law at the Universities of Konstanz and Ottawa and received her doctorate from the Technical University of Munich.

This workshop is designed for those who wish to pursue a career in academia. The requirements for careers in academia are diverse and demanding. Many young female academics enjoy working in their field of research, but doubt that they can meet all the demands of the system. In this workshop, the academic career portfolio will first be presented and afterwards the participants will take stock of their own achievements in the following areas: What have I already achieved, what should I focus on in the near future, and what do I find particularly difficult to accomplish.Beyond fulfilling the system requirements, we will reflect on our personal values and ideas about future life choices and explore how they shape our scientific profile.

Participation is limited to PhD students and early-career postdocs.

Your trainer: Dr. Cornelia Rahn
Dr. Cornelia Rahn has been working as a systemic coach, mediator, and trainer since 2016, primarily in the academic sector. Prior to that, Dr. Rahn, who holds a PhD in geography, worked as a researcher for over 10 years – first as a research assistant at Humboldt University of Berlin and then as a group leader at the German Aerospace Center.