As a core competency group, social and gender competence has been one of the essential criteria for some years at TU Wien in appointment procedures and other admission processes for managerial roles (see questionnaire, opens a file in a new window). Both groups of skills are also of paramount importance as a code of conduct, and in reflexivity and knowledge, in everyday work at the university, for constructive interaction in research, administration and teaching practice and to coordinate the respective professional strategies accordingly.

Gender mainstreaming, which has long since been a key term for the universal view of gender relevance in all aspects [cf. 4R method] could likewise be understood and practised as social mainstreaming as regards the universal view of person-related, diversity-aware and anti-discriminatory matters. Since talk of gender and social competence is all too often limited to either knowledge or behaviour, an understanding of gender and social competence as an area of intersectionality would be helpful.

Questions that arise in discussing this matter include the following:

• What do gender and social competence mean and how are they related to each other?

• What are the positive effects of social and gender competence?

• How can an improvement or deepening of skills be recognised?

• As a manager, how can you promote this competence with regard to yourself and employees?

• How can you communicate the relevance of these skills to success in your professional life?