Women at WU

Who are the women working at WU today? Who were the pioneering women in business studies? We want to make these women visible and honor their achievements.

Women in business studies

schwarz/weißes Portrait - Hermine Goll

Women have only been entitled to pursue a degree program in Austria since 1897. Men had been allowed to study at Austrian universities for several hundred years at that time. At the Hochschule für Welthandel, WU's predecessor, women were admitted to the degree program from the beginning (1919). However, the proportion of women among the graduates increased only slowly: by 1930, 4%, and by 1970, 16% of the degrees were awarded to women.

Committed female scholars at WU also worked to break down barriers for women in academia, increasingly integrating women-specific topics into research and teaching. Starting in 1990, legal changes provided further impetus and improvements: For example, the Equal Opportunities Committee, which is required by law, has been active in anti-discrimination matters at WU since 1991, and in 1991 it presented the first Plan for the Advancement of Women at WU. Specific programs and measures continue to promote equal opportunities for women and men at WU.

Today, slightly fewer women than men graduate with business degrees from WU. Gender imbalances at the higher academic hierarchy levels, on the other hand, are changing only slowly. In 2020, women held 30 of the total 100 professorships.

Margarethe Ottillinger - Lassen Sie mich arbeiten! (Let me work!)

More women on Wikipedia

Arbeit, lebensnah (Work, true to life) - Käthe Leichter and Marie Jahoda

Women in the StartUp Scene

Women pioneers of WU

Hall of Femmes