Challenge diversity: New curricula in Natural Sciences, Computer Science and Engineering

Despite extensive social changes and intensive political efforts to establish equal opportunities, women are still a minority in the fields of natural sciences and technology studies, as well as in the related professional fields. At the same time, technologically oriented studies are not per se less interesting for women, but their motivation, specific interests, learning styles, goals and demands often vary significantly from those of men. The rather broad interests of women often are directly opposed by a unilateral, outdated, techno-centric learning-/training program, which is not only unattractive to women (and an increasingly high number of men), but also bypasses the actual demands of modern education and the job market. The complexity of global markets, social reference, economical objectives and ecological limits call for integrated thought and action, which has to be mirrored in interdisciplinary approaches. A change within the curricula towards a support of non-technological basics and social skills would thus not only support the interests of women and men but also follow the demands of economy. The Galilea project, located at the Berlin University of Technology, is developing several models of co-educative, gender-sensitive model-courses within the three areas: natural sciences, computer sciences and engineering.