An evening with women in engineering
24.06.2021
Our colleague Anita Thaler (head of the research unit Gender, Science and Technology) met and exchanged ideas with 75 women who work in electronics and software industries. Her talk followed presentations from successful engineers Heike Schwager (Senior Director Automotive Radar Development, Infineon AG), Jennifer Zhao (EVP and GM in Advanced Optical Sensors Division, ams AG) and Sabine Martinjak (Women in Tech Lead, Bulme Graz). The international online event, organised by the Graz Women in Engineering core team, took place on June 23rd 2021, the International Women in Engineering Day to celebrate women in technology jobs, but also to reflect on difficulties in the engineering working environment.
Anita Thaler talked about “Why we need Gender Equality Plans in Industrial Research”, to promote gender mainstreaming in this financially strong research sector:
“While 70% research budgets in Austria and Germany are allocated in the business research sector, the share of women researchers in industry lies below 20%!”, explained Thaler. This is she and her team (Sandra Karneraund Julian Anslinger) are building in the next months a community of practice (CoP) here in Austria focussing on co-creating gender equality knowledge with technology research organisations within the EC funded project CHANGE.