Background

What is the DPT?

Elsa Neumann was the first woman in Germany to be allowed to study physics with exceptional permission. In 1899 she passed her PhD exam in Berlin. Since then more than a hundred years have passed in which women have asserted themselves in this men-dominated discipline. But they are still a minority. Just once a year the situation changes - during the German Women in Physics Conference.

The German Women in Physics Conference (Deutsche Physikerinnentagung, DPT) is an annual and, by now, well established institution since 1997. It considers itself as a forum for women in physics. During the DPT, committed and interested female scientists of all research areas, career stages, occupational fields, regions and qualifications are present. The meeting does not only focus on scientific discussion, but also on the exchange of experiences and presentations on professional perspectives of physicists. All women connected with physics - pupils, students, lecturers, researchers, teachers and physicists in industry - are invited, as well as all men who want to support the purposes of the meeting.

History of the DPT

Since the 1990s there were frequent meetings between female physicists in Germany where they presented physical topics as well as discussed social questions. In 1997 such a meeting, which took place in Berlin, was called the Deutsche Physikerinnentagung (DPT) by the attending physicists for the first time. An initiative was drafted on the interests of female physicists in the German Physical Society (Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft, DPG). One year later, in 1998, the DPT took place in Hamburg. At the end of the meeting the then-president of the DPG, Alexander Bradshaw, confirmed the foundation of the working group for equal opportunities (Arbeitskreis Chancengleichheit, AKC) of the DPG. Since 2006 the DPT is announced as an official DPG meeting.

In 2011 a pilot project was initiated that allows men to also give subject-related talks on the DPT. The fraction of allowed talks given by men is derived by the fraction of invited female speakers at the annual DPG spring meetings (DPG-Frühjahrstagungen).