Leaky Pipeline

Leaky pipeline describes the gradual decrease in the proportion of women as the career stage increases. While more than 50 % of students are female at the time of graduation, the proportion of women decreases with each further career stage in science. This effect is very clear in the case of professorships: in the ten-year period from 2008 to 2018, the proportion of female professors increased overall from 17.4 % to 24.7 %. However, the share of women differs depending on the grade: W1 professors, so-called junior professors, recently accounted for 46.6% of professorships at universities, C3/W2 professors, also known as professors at universities of applied sciences, still 25.5% and C4/W3 professors, who are tenured professors, only 20.5%.

Source: "Leaky pipeline" at universities exists EU-wide, Centre for Higher Education Development