The Max Planck Society is making a wide range of efforts to achieve greater equality of opportunity and, in particular, to appoint more women to senior scientific positions
We can do it! The Max Planck Society has set itself ambitious goals for the appointment of women scientists.
© Gerard Bottino / ZUMAPRESS.com / picture alliance
The MPG has set itself ambitious goals: by 2030, the proportion of female scientists in leadership roles is to rise by one percentage point annually. In addition, new appointments aim to ensure that all Max Planck Institutes will have at least one female director in the future.
The figures for 2025 are impressive. The targets have been clearly exceeded at both the director level (W3) and among independent research group leaders (W2). The proportion of women at the W3 level rose to 26.1 percent, well above the target of 22.8 percent. For independent research group leaders, the self-imposed target of 41.3 percent was also exceeded, reaching 43.7 percent.
At least one female director at each Institute
More women in leadership positions: This chart shows the development within the Max Planck Society from 2019 to 2025 among directors, independent research group leaders, group leaders, postdocs, and PhD candidates.
The Max Planck Society is thus moving steadily closer to its goal of having at least one female director at every Institute by 2030. By the end of 2025, this was already the case at 68 percent of all Institutes, an increase of two percentage points compared with the previous year. Expressed in terms of appointments made in 2025: of nine directors appointed, four were women and five men, corresponding to an appointment rate of 44.4 percent. This rate reflects the share of open positions filled by women.
With 36 percent female scientists at the W2/W3 level, the Max Planck Society now ranks first among Germany's non-university research organisations and stands above the average for universities as well.
At the group management level below W2, the proportion of women increased by 1.2 percentage points to 23.9 percent in 2025. There is still room for improvement here - the target is 27.1 per cent.
Among early-career female scientists, the proportion of women has remained relatively stable for several years, showing only slight variations. In 2025, the share of female doctoral students rose from 42.4 percent (2024) to 43.1 percent (2025), while among postdoctoral researchers, it increased from 35 percent to 36.6 percent.
A key driver in raising the proportion of women in scientific leadership positions is the Lise Meitner Excellence Programme (LME). More than 40 outstanding female scientists have been appointed through the programme. To date, two of them have become Max Planck directors, and seven have secured positions as independent research group leaders following successful tenure-track evaluations.
