Gender Studies is a transdisciplinary research area. Since the 1970s, researchers have critically engaged with ‘traditional’ disciplines and have continually grown stronger since – theoretical as well as empirical. Gender Studies is now a vital academic field in many countries. In German-speaking areas, institutionalisation began in the 1990s. During this period, gender centres, working groups as well as study programmes and curricula were established and developed. In 2003, Humboldt-University in Berlin held a workshop that provided an opportunity for these different programmes to network for the first time. This opportunity was widely welcomed. In the following, annual meetings – each at a different university and with a different theme – were organised in order to strengthen the network. As a result of the network’s success and out of necessity, the umbrella organisation Committee of Women’s and Gender Studies Institutions in German-speaking Areas was founded at the annual meeting in Frankfurt/Main in 2006.