Current Projects
WOMEN OVER 50
The current situation, perspectives and hopes for the future of women over 50 who have a university degree
Project director Dr.in Kerstin Witt-Löw, Consultant Dr.in Marion Breiter
October 2016 – Decembre 2017
Short description of the project:
The project aims to examine the professional situation and lived experience of women
between the ages of 50 and 70 who have an academic degree. This demographic has relatively
extensive resources and competencies, due to their educational background. With the
educational reform of the 1970s and subsequent years greater numbers of women from
non-academic backgrounds gained access to tertiary education for the first time.
This study focuses on the generation of female academics who took advantage of these
educational opportunities and attained educational success, despite a non-academic
familial background. Thus opportunities and ways of life opened up to them that were
very different from those available to their mothers. How were these women able to take
advantage of these opportunities for their professional life? What were the difficulties
they faced, what did they perceive as helpful and positive? Were their larger social
expectations fulfilled? Where do these women stand now, in terms of their career and their
civil society engagement? What avenues for personal development are open to these women,
what wishes needs, and resources do they have? What is the potential of these well-educated
women? These are the questions at the core of the study.
Project design:
Expert interviews
9 focus groups of different networks of women
40 interviews with women from our target group-taking
into consideration the different life and career paths
Contact:
kerstin.witt-loew@institut-sofia.at
Senior Expert Advisor: Lore Hostasch und Eva Wilhelm
This project is supported and financed by:
Chamber of Labour, Vienna; Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection
Downloads:
Studie Frauen 50+
Kurzfassung Studie Frauen 50+
Text der Präsentation der Studie am 23.4.18
Claudia Kuschinski-Wallach, Marion Breiter und Kerstin Witt-Löw bei der Präsentaion der Studie "Frauen 50+"
am 23.4.2018 im Konferenzraum der ÖBB
