Both biological sex and socio-cultural gender roles are important variables in biomedical research and clinical medicine. Men and women differ not only in terms of the incidence of diseases and the age of onset, but also with regard to the course of the disease and the response to different therapies. The underlying causes of gender differences and their pathophysiological relevance as well as the consistent adaptation of prevention and therapy measures are increasingly becoming the focus of current research activities. The explosive nature of this topic in medicine is also demonstrated by the fact that the DFG now makes the allocation of funding dependent on the integration of gender and diversity aspects in basic and translational research projects. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go before gender aspects are sufficiently taken into account in biomedical research and clinical medicine. Apart from research activities, this will only be achieved through the consistent integration of the cross-sectional subject ‘gender-specific medicine’ into the basic teaching of medical studies, medicine-related degree programmes and training courses as well as further training measures.