Female Role Models

It is an original area of responsibility of the equal opportunity commissioner/women’s representative to inspire young women for technology. But unfortunately, historical or present role models are often missing.

The poster exhibition does not only illuminate the women themselves but also the basic conditions under which they lived and worked. The access to higher school education und studies was often not only made more difficult for girls and women, but was often officially refused to them. 

During the research for this exhibition, we noticed that it is indeed not so easy to find suitable material, also in the form of pictures, for corresponding posters. Even in the “Encyclopaedia of famous women” by Luise Pusch, the section of female scientists is clearly under-represented.

We know from the past, however, that role models have a great effect. In the year 1910, the Radium Institute was founded in Vienna on the basis of private donations (as an institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Vienna). At first, Stefan Meier was responsible for the leadership of this institute. Between the foundation of the institute and the year 1945, more than 70 women worked there (employees and freelancers). This corresponds to a women’s proportion of 22-57% at the institute. What was the reason for such a high women’s proportion just at that time?

Among others, the following reasons may certainly be made out: As the director of the institute, Stefan Meier actively promoted women. Already in 1906, for example, he encouraged Lise Meitner, after she had received her PhD, to deal with research on radioactivity. Besides this, there was also a strong female role model in this research area: In 1911, Marie Curie received her second Nobel prize for her discovery of radium. Again and again, role models are important for the establishment of an identity, and especially in the technical field, we cannot get enough role models for young women.

Finally, we would like to give an example for this opinion: In 1897, a survey was held among university teachers with the following question: "Which reasons are in favour or against academic studies of women?" The following answers are documented: Max Planck (at that time director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of Berlin): "Amazons are against nature also in the intellectual field […]. In general, however, it cannot be emphasized enough that nature itself dictated the women their profession as a mother and housewife […]".

Wilhelm Ostwald, who received the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1908, also regards the triple form of wife, housewife and mother as the professional and life destination of a woman. He emphasizes that the satisfaction resulting from this activity "[…] is purer and stronger than it might be through any kind of scientific discovery […]".

Well, many women saw and see their situation differently. The biochemist Gerti Theresa Cori: "The love of work and the devotion to it seems to me the basis of happiness."