“Equal Rites” is the title of a fantasy book by Terry Pratchett. The premise of the book is that in the magical land of Discworld, a dying wizard tries to pass on his powers to his heir, who is destined to become a wizard. The fact that the son is, in fact, a girl is discovered just a little too late. But a female wizard is something completely unheard of in the Discworld. Girls cannot be grand, powerful, stoich wizards, if only by the fact that a wizard must have a long white beard. They can only become witches.

A central theme of this book is the contrast between the (female) witches, who are in touch with nature, herbs and “headology”, and the (male) wizards who use elaborate mathematics-like tools and rituals. Being a wizard earns you respect and a high position in society whereas being a witch doesn’t earn you much of anything except for being the weird woman in town you go to when you need a love potion or something for your bad back.

We think the playful title and the theme of the book fit perfectly well with the focus of the panel discussion. Just think about it, have you ever felt like there are some secret sacred “rites of passage” to be acknowledged and accepted as a “real” scientist? Have you ever felt you have to adapt to a traditional (male) way of thinking or a lifestyle?Pratchett said of his book:

“Oh well, it won’t win me a PhD. I suspect that via the insidious medium of picture books for children the wizards will continue to practice their high magic and the witches will perform their evil, bad-tempered spells. It’s going to be a long time before there’s room for equal rites.” – 1985 talk “Why Gandalf never married” by Terry Pratchett

The influence of role models we are being exposed to from a very early age on is tremendous and, if we are being honest with ourselves, has the picture changed much since the 1980s when the quote was first said?

Interesting and very fitting to our discussion is also the way Pratchett does not necessarily focus on men (wizards) hindering women to become wizards, but the whole very stiff, social construct and thinking of both women and men, which limits their possibilities and development. Even the elderly witch that helps the little wizard girl is trapped in the traditional ways of thinking and is repeatedly confronted with that.

Since the 1980s, there has been a lot of conversation around this topic, but how much has our society really changed? Which aspects still need to improve? How far away are we from the gender-neutral, meritocracy-based equal workplace and which specific action can we as a society take to reach that goal?

These are some of the questions we will attempt to answer in our panel discussion.