Introducing the First Feminist Network at TU Wien
The Path to Greater Equality at the Faculty of Technical Chemistry: The Formation of FemChem
It is time to take action
Did you know that more than 30% of all students at the TU Wien are female?
This means that every third seat in a lecture hall or work space in a laboratory is occupied by a woman. In the Bachelor and Master programmes of Technical Chemistry, this ratio is even higher: the percentage of female students reaches nearly 50%.
Until 2016, there was actually no full female professor at the Faculty of Technical Chemistry!
It was time to take action, and FemChem, a network of female scientists, was born.
FemChem Time Line
Since its foundation in 2016, scientific workshops, annual meetings, training courses and studies have been successfully organised. Our website, newsletter and social media presence give us visibility.
FemChem Achievements: Milestones in Equality and Visibility
The FemChem network was established only after the Faculty of Technical Chemistry won a competition within the TU Wien to create sustainable equality concepts. During this process, a group of motivated female scientists framed an action plan to promote women in science. Amongst other things, this plan included travel grants for conferences, increasing the number of habilitated women in university positions, and improving communication within the faculty.
Since then, the effects of the FemChem action plan have become clearly visible. The following list highlights a few of our milestones:
- After 100 years, Ruth Birner-Grünberger became the first female professor at the Faculty of Technical Chemistry.
- In 2020 and 2021, Martina Marchetti-Deschmann, Golta Khatibi Damavandi, Katharina Schröder, Maria Cruz Sanchez Sanchez und Astrid Mach-Aigner were awarded tenure.
- Three female candidates (Anne Conibear, Irina Delidovich und Maren Podewitz) are on tenure- track positions.
- As a direct consequence of all those actions, Martina Marchetti-Deschmann became the first female head of one of our institutes in spring 2024 (Institute of Chemical Technologies and Analytics).
- The Scientific Workshop and Annual Meeting were introduced to boost visibility and enhance networking between the institutes.
- Tailored workshops and seminars are offered throughout the year to enhance hard- and soft-skills of our students. Depending on the topic, these courses are either female-only or open to all genders.
- More than 32 travel grants were awarded to female students for conference participations all over the world.
- The FemChem lecture (LVA 034.028) on gender-sensitive collaboration and project management was established.
- A study on the situation of young scientists at the Faculty (Gender) was executed and the follow-up (PARENT) is currently being conducted.