After submitting a proposal to the DFG [German Research Foundation], which included a presentation to the review board, I got on the phone with the DFG’s subject specialist. He tells me that my proposal will not be recommended for acceptance. One reason, he says, is that I am too old and have not done enough, despite having two children. I ask if I can resubmit the application. He answers in the affirmative but says that I obviously cannot change my biography and that my chances are, therefore, rather poor. Later, of course, I find nothing about my ‘biography’ in the written letter of rejection. Here ‘ambiguities within the project plan,’ which could not be cleared up during my presentation to the review board, are mentioned as reasons for rejection. During the presentation, the review board only consisted of men, almost all of them over 60, and none of them had asked me how I had managed as a single mother to build up an independent, internationally recognized field of research, to acquire external funding, and to write publications. However, I find my reaction to the rejection almost worse than the discrimination. I was shocked but did not dare to submit a new application for over a year for fear of again being perceived as too old and not good enough.