Leipzig mainstreaming move causes uproar

By Michael Gardner. The University of Leipzig in Saxony, east Germany, has taken an unusual step to promote women’s equality in academia. Its constitution now refers to all university staff members in the feminine form. German is a language with grammatical gender, the three forms being feminine, masculine and neuter. The feminine form for professor is professorin, with ‘professor’ as masculine. Women doctoral students are doktorinnen, and women academics in general are wissenschaftlerinnen. Read more...