We examine how global pressures for competitiveness and gender equality have shaped three recent German higher education reform programs. These programs show a German vernacularization of academic narratives about the need for “inclusive excellence” in universities that want to be “the best.” Their strategies reflect a shift from assisting individual women’s achievement to institutional gender mainstreaming, and now mix federal financial incentives for
“competitiveness” into this legitimating narrative. The national funding agency is an important actor in this process, particularly through creating opportunities for local gender equality advocates to press more effectively for its intervention.
