Members of our team participated in the STGS Student Video Project as part of the advanced seminar „How Does Gender Shape Science? The Intermingling of Gender and Natural Sciences in Historical Context.“ This seminar, held in the Summer Semester of 2024, was co-organized by Prof. Dr. Maria Rentetzi and Prof. Dr. Kristina Giesel at the Department of Physics.
The seminar examined the history of physics through the lens of gender studies and the history of science, with students conducting interdisciplinary research using both qualitative and quantitative methods.
As part of the project, the team produced a 13-minute video titled “The Entanglement of Scientific Competence and Fashion in the Field of Physics in Academia.” This video explores how physics professors perceive gender-specific clothing styles and their connection to scientific competence.
Key Findings:
Clothing in academia is expected to be practical, especially for lab work.
Female professors tend to define smaller in-groups where casual clothing is acceptable, unlike their male counterparts.
Fashionable attire often leads to female professors‘ competence being questioned—a bias not observed for male professors.
Although rarely discussed, fashion plays a significant role in shaping social norms and gender biases in physics.
The project was led by Anabel Kummer (Physics), Eileen Schneider (Physics), and Ralf Mitschke (Sociology), with video editing by Ioana M. (Medical Engineering).
Members of our team participated in the STGS Student Video Project as part of the advanced seminar „How Does Gender Shape Science? The Intermingling of Gender and Natural Sciences in Historical Context.“ This seminar, held in the Summer Semester of 2024, was co-organized by Prof. Dr. Maria Rentetzi and Prof. Dr. Kristina Giesel at the Department of Physics.
The seminar examined the history of physics through the lens of gender studies and the history of science, with students conducting interdisciplinary research using both qualitative and quantitative methods.
As part of the project, the team produced a 13-minute video titled “The Entanglement of Scientific Competence and Fashion in the Field of Physics in Academia.” This video explores how physics professors perceive gender-specific clothing styles and their connection to scientific competence.
Key Findings:
The project was led by Anabel Kummer (Physics), Eileen Schneider (Physics), and Ralf Mitschke (Sociology), with video editing by Ioana M. (Medical Engineering).