112 years ago, on 19 March 1911, International Women's Day was celebrated for the first time. It was initiated by the women's rights activist and German Social Democratic, later Communist politician Clara Zetkin at the "Second International Women's Conference" in Copenhagen in 1910. Since 1921, Women's Day has been celebrated on 08 March; since 1977, it has been declared the "United Nations Day for Women's Rights and World Peace" by a UN resolution. Worldwide annual events draw attention to the issues of gender equality, women's rights and the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. This year, representatives of UN member states will again meet at the 67^th Session of the UN Commission on the Rights of Women from 06 until 17 March 2023, to discuss gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls against the backdrop of technological change and education in the digital age.

What about the percentage of women in the DGM? On the occasion of International Women's Day, we have taken a closer look at the private memberships of female members of the association and let numbers (rounded figures) speak for themselves: Of the total memberships, the private memberships with about 91.4 per cent determine the decisive share of the association statistics. Of these, 19 per cent of individual members are women from research and industry. Professionals up to 30 years of age are proportionately represented by three per cent, and female students and doctoral candidates up to 30 years of age by 14 per cent. Women ages 30 to 45 lead the statistics at 44 per cent, followed by those 45 and older, who take up 30 per cent. Five per cent of our active female members have reached retirement age. With one per cent, but not less important, our DGM honorary members are mentioned here: Prof. Dr. Christina Berger, Dr. Magarethe Hofmann-Amtenbrink, Mrs. Karin Dieser and Mrs. Gundula Jeschke.

Since 2022, regular events by women for women have been held in our association network under the overarching theme of women's network promotion, including, for example, the Women's Breakfast on 04 May for the hybrid conference BioMat 2023. Other scientific institutes and institutions also invite to events on the occasion of International Women's Day. At Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU), an online Women's Talk Marathon 2023 will take place from 7:45 a.m. to 8:55 p.m., with female students, employees and professors presenting the diversity of technical subjects, from the STEM field, in 20 lectures.

The DGM wishes all of our members, especially the women of the DGM, a strong day and says, cheers to diversity.