As part of the lecture series "Navigating in uncertain times - social crises and their shaping", a panel discussion entitled "Shaping fragile futures - are feminist perspectives or policies an answer?" took place on Thursday, May 16 at the HSZG in Görlitz. After a brief theoretical and content-related introduction by the organizer and moderator Dr. Julia Gabler, a lively and inspiring discussion ensued among the invited participants. The diversity of perspectives from university management (Sophia Keil, Vice Rector Education), gender research (Bernadette Rohlf, TRAWOS), (feminist) sustainability research and consulting (Markus Will, ZIM) and queer-feminist activism (Franzi Böhm and Rebecca Jakob, feminist*forum Görlitz) enabled current issues relating to higher education policy, regional development and gender inequality in performance-oriented societies to be discussed with illustrative examples and personal anecdotes as well as insights from science.