Advertent observers of the German higher education landscape will know that science political actors as the HRK German Rectors’ Conference and the German Council of Science and Humanities have since the turn of the Millenium been discovering family justice as profile building element in the process of restructuring scientific organisa-tion(s). At first sight, this struggle has to be welcomed without restrictions as a signal of considering diversity and of improving the conditions of studies and work for parents in academia. However, the second sight at this struggle makes sceptical because under conditions of the current restructuring of the higher education landscape policies to im-plement more social and institutional justice do not seem to be on the agenda.
In my paper I will discuss the continuing discourse and practice of auditing and certify-ing family justice in scientific organisation(s) in Germany in the light of the debate about the shrinking and ageing German society and connect it with the ongoing entre-preneurial restructuring of the German welfare state and its organisations. I will argue that the nearly consensual acceptance and promotion of family justice in and by scien-tific organisation(s) expresses the advent of pronatalism in German science policies and seems to become more important than gender equality (policies) for all scientists, with and without child(ren).
This argument will be confirmed by a qualitative content analysis of documents from the fields of German family and science policies on the governmental level and eventu-ally additionally by qualitative interviews with academic managers (rectors, deans) and with professors which originate from my empirical research on gender equality policies in German academia. The empirical material proves the so-called ‘paradigm change’ from women’s policy to family policy in scientific organisation(s) that has been worked out by gender studies scholars for different policy fields.
