Creating STEM – Initiation of a community of practice for more girls and women in STEM professions in the Salzkammergut

The project "Creating STEM" ("MI(N)T gestalten") tries a new approach to attract more young women from the Salzkammergut region to STEM professions (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

Client

Bundeskanzleramt

Contact
Duration

2022-2023

Partner
  • Internationale Akademie Traunkirchen
  • Frauenforum Salzkammergut

The approach is to bring stakeholders – from education, business, science and women themselves – closer together through a community of practice (CoP). An important part of the CoP is an advisory board of women in the region who have already successfully entered STEM professions, as well as experts from education and gender research. This advisory board also formulates recommendations to participating organizations. Their feedback is intended to help improve existing offerings and provide clear guidance on what they can do to attract young women to STEM careers and return to the region.
The project thus follows recommendations from gender research that calls for a system change rather than simply focusing on changing women.
The initiative, which is funded by the Federal Chancellery's Women's Project Promotion Programme, on the one hand specifically addresses girls and young women who would like to take up a profession or study in the STEM field. On the other hand, it is a proposal to companies that offer or arrange jobs in this field to exchange ideas with other institutions and women, to network and to learn from each other.

Podcast
Podcast Villa LilaLaut on the subject "MI(N)Tgestalten" with Birgit Hofstätter and Anita Thaler