The Austrian GenderTime team completed an evaluation of the FemPower initiative

Anita Thaler and Birgit Hofstätter recently completed an evaluation of the FemPower initiative by ZIT - The Technology Agency of Vienna which is intended to support women researchers' careers in (mainly) industrial research, comparing the ICT sector and the Life Science sector.

On the occasion of this study, Birgit Hofstätter was invited to a roundtable with Vienna's deputy mayor Renate Brauner and researcher Angela Neubauer (Biomay) to discuss the impact of financial incentives for companies promoting women in their careers. The study revealed that this measure particularly boosts the careers of women who become project managers for the first time. Along with this outcome, interviews with the researchers also confirmed results from former studies on stumbling blocks and supportive conditions for women's careers in research, such as sexism, old boys networks and long career breaks due to parental leave or sickness as opposed to inclusive, non-sexist working cultures, quotas (i.e. promotion/employment of women in case of equal qualification compared to male top candidates), mentoring, and financial incentives for research institutions with supportive structures.
The roundtable was moderated by Claudia Schanza from the research magazine "Forschen & Entdecken" ("Researching & Discovering"), an article on the discussion is expected for autumn.

 

For further information on results of the ZIT study follow:
(short version)

http://www.zit.co.at/fileadmin/user_upload/ZIT/Dienstleistungen/ZIT_Studie_2012_Frauenkarrieren.pdf

 

(longer version)

http://www.ifz.tugraz.at/Media/Dateien/Downloads-IFZ/Publikationen/Forschungsberichte/Frauen-Technik-Umwelt/ZIT-FemPower-Studie-2012