Women at the top: Social innovations for a better future!

Women at the top: Social innovations for a better future!

Women play a central role as drivers of social innovation, but their achievements are often not sufficiently recognized. The research project INNOVATORIN, led by the Chair of Engineering Education and Didactics of Technical Education as well as the Chair of Logistics at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, is dedicated intensively to this topic. The aim is to investigate which social, cultural and individual factors influence the visibility of innovative women. The project is financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with around 500,000 euros.

The project focuses on structural obstacles and develops measures to overcome them. Social innovations, which are often more strongly influenced by women than technological innovations, offer sustainable solutions to social challenges. The project manager, Prof. Dr. Frank Bünning, emphasizes the importance of the visibility of women in social innovation fields. UNIMAGAZINE reports that around 40 women in Saxony-Anhalt who work in social innovation projects will be interviewed in the coming months.

Surveys and interviews

The respondents include founders of social enterprises, heads of non-profit organizations and initiators of non-profit projects. In addition, ten interviews will be conducted with media professionals. The methodology provides for qualitative interviews to record individual experiences, barriers and strategies to increase visibility. A design-oriented approach should develop an implementation model that includes various actors. The results of the project will serve as a guide to improving the visibility of women in social innovation fields at the end of 2027.

An example of successful self-employment is Silvia Moser, who founded the company “Eigenleben” a year ago. Moser is a qualified social worker and advises people with physical and multiple disabilities on their personal budgets in order to give them more self-determination when choosing and financing aid measures. Her start-up was supported by the research project “Women.Enterprises.Social Work” at the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences. This project promotes the independence of women in social work and will be completed this year. HS Niederrhein notes that between April 2009 and December 2010 a total of 120 women took part in the project's events, 22 of whom started their own businesses in the social sector.

Challenges and perspectives

There is a moral barrier that often prevents women from seeking financial success. Many of the participants have this experience, especially since many of them had no previous business or legal knowledge to start a business. The project offers individual advice that is specifically designed to meet the requirements of the social sector. According to the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, 66 percent of those employed in the social sector are women, which underlines the urgency of improving the conditions for female artists and founders.

In the current context, there is a significant need for research in the field of social work as there are few relevant studies. The project is funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the EU's ERDF fund, which shows the importance attached to social work and the role of women in this sector.