WomenInScience@TF

(Future) Mothers in Science – Balancing the Care Concentration Gap

All female students and female scientists of the FAU are cordially invited.

Jump to registration form

Take advantage of the pleasant and trusting atmosphere of the event and connect with female scientists.

When?: September 15 2025; 10:00 am to 3:00 pm
Where?: H12, Cauerstr. 11, 91058 Erlangen

Why?

  • Learn strategies for building a sustainable network
  • Understand how caregiving responsibilities impact productivity and participation.
  • Hear personal stories that shed light on the hidden work of balancing family and science.
  • Take the opportunity to ask our panel guests for their opinions and personal experiences and to get in touch with them personally during the get-together.
  • Participate in a discussion about creating equitable academic environments for all caregivers.

Schedule:

10:00am
Welcome
10:10am

Keynote

The Care Concentration Gap – Why Mothers Struggle to Focus And What That Means for Their Academic Career

Dr. Wiebke Vogelaar, https://www.schreibcoaching-fuer-mamas.de/

In this interactive keynote, writing coach and political scientist Wiebke Vogelaar explores the systemic barriers that prevent caregivers—especially mothers in academia—from accessing the deep concentration needed for writing and research.
Drawing on her concept of the Care Concentration Gap, she examines how mental and emotional labor fragment time and attention, even when work hours are available. The talk combines structural analysis with empowering strategies, offering participants a space to reflect on their own writing realities and develop first steps toward more focused and self-directed work.
This talk is tailored to the everyday challenges of academic mothers and provides practical tools for navigating writing in the midst of care responsibilities.


Dr. Wiebke Vogelaar is a political scientist, writing coach, author, and mother of three. Her academic and professional work centers on power structures in academia, with a special focus on caregiving responsibilities and gender equity. In her coaching practice (Alma Mater), she supports mothers in academia in developing sustainable writing routines – with a focus on deep concentration, creativity, and  agency. Drawing from feminist theory, productivity research, and years of experience coaching mothers, she developed the coined the term Care Concentration Gap. This Gap describes how unequally distributed cognitive and emotional care labor undermines access to uninterrupted focus time – and what this means for the well-being, productivity, and career paths of caregiving academics.
11:15am
Coffee break
11:45am
Panel discussion

Taking Care of Everything? Rethinking Gendered Expectations And Mothers‘ Role in Academia
Moderator:
Dr. Wiebke Vogelaar
This panel brings together researchers and professionals who carry caregiving responsibilities while navigating academic careers. Through personal stories and professional insights, they will make visible what often remains hidden: the labour of managing a family that still rests disproportionately on women – and how this affects focus, productivity, and participation in academic life.
Moderated by Wiebke Vogelaar, developer of the Care Concentration Gap concept, this session is not about individual solutions. Instead, it opens space for collective reflection: What does it mean when mothers are still expected to manage both career and care? What would it take to move beyond this model – toward shared responsibility and real institutional change?

Panel guests:
– Prof. Dr.-Ing. Silvia Budday, https://www.lkm.tf.fau.eu/person/budday-silvia-dr-ing/
– Dr. Katrin Drasch, Akademische Oberrätin (LfbA), https://www.soziologie.phil.fau.de/institut/team/drasch/
– Dr. rer. nat. Sabine Thürauf, https://www.airob.tf.fau.de/person/sabine-thuerauf/
– Sheethal Bhat, Ph.D. Researcher at Pattern Recognition Lab and Siemens Healthineers, https://lme.tf.fau.de/person/bhat/
1:15pm
to
3pm		Get Together
Snacks and drinks provided

Please note: By participating, you agree that photographs and film footage in which you may be recognizable may potentially be published in various media for purposes of event coverage and general publicity.

If you have any questions, please contact Hanna Stöcker.

Kontakt

Hanna Stöcker, hanna.stoecker@fau.de