Gender equality ranking: University of Stuttgart making strong progress

How well does the University of Stuttgart promote gender equality along the academic career path from doctorate to professorship? The “Center of Excellence Women and Science” (CEWS) provides an answer to this with its “CEWS University Ranking by Gender Equality Aspects”, which is published every two years. The ranking covers all German universities, distinguishes between university types, and accounts for structural differences. For example, between technically oriented universities and those focused on the humanities, social sciences, or the natural sciences.

The June 2025 edition confirms that the University of Stuttgart meets a high standard in gender equality. It ranks among the top group in three out of six categories.

The University of Stuttgart achieves top rankings for both postdocs (i.e., academics with a doctorate in the qualification phase for a professorship) and professorships themselves.

Furthermore, it scores highly in the category tracking changes in gender balance at professorship level over five years.

The key method for the ranking is the “cascade principle”. It examines whether women are proportionately represented at the next career stage compared with the previous one (i.e., compares two successive qualification levels).

Numerous structural measures and initiatives show that gender diversity and equity are a top priority at the University of Stuttgart.

It recently achieved its second-highest score in the THE Impact Ranking 2025 in the “Reduced Inequalities” category, where it ranks in the group of 101–200 out of a total of almost 1,300 universities assessed in the world ranking.

The CEWS is the Competence Center Women in Science and Research of the GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. Established 20 years ago, the CEWS University Ranking on Gender Equality is regarded as a reliable tool for gender monitoring at German universities. The 2025 edition is based on data collected by the Federal Statistical Office in 2023.