As a female junior professor at an institute, I was in charge of my first major project. For strategic reasons, the director of the institute invited cooperation partners to be part of the project. I was informed of his decision. The cooperation partner, a male professor, brought a large team with him. As I was outnumbered, he immediately saw himself as the rightful leader of the project. Not wanting to admit defeat right away, I sought support from the director of the institute. I discussed decisions with him, and he assured me that he would back me up. But that was nothing but hot air. Because I was given a professorship at a different institute in the meantime, I was offered a contract to continue managing the project. However, the work I had agreed to do and, in fact, already had partially done was not remunerated. The project leadership was tacitly given to someone else.