From 1983 to 1990, Götschel studied physics in Hamburg and Tübingen and promoted as a social and economic historian. She also studied science, university idiocy and gender research in Tübingen and Hamburg. She held guest professorships at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg , the Technical University Kaiserslautern and the Technical University Darmstadt. In 2015, she was appointed Maria-Goeppert-Mayer- professor for "Gender in Engineering and Computer Science" to the Hanover University of Applied Sciences. Götschel primarily deals with gender research in natural sciences and with the history of physics.