Mission Statement

Female scientists are currently underrepresented at the Faculty of Life Sciences, particularly in Biology. The Women in Biology Initiative seeks to understand the underlying causes and to support the careers of female scientists at all levels, from students to professors. Our vision is to equalize the female-male employment status and leadership at the Faculty. 

Upcoming events

  • Our first WoBio lunch will take place on Wednesday, June 7th. Meeting point: University Biology Building, downstairs between the lecture halls, at 12:30. Don't forget to bring your lunch!
  • We invite you to our WoBio's Welcome Day on Thursday, May 4th, at the Lecture Hall 2 at the UBB. Guest speaker will be Mag.in. Michaela Gindl. The event is open to everyone (all genders and career stages)! More information and registration on the event page
  • For other events, you can also check our Events & Networking page. We look forward to seeing you!

News & Events

News
 

WoBio members Verena Ibl and Lisa Horn were interviewed by the German newpaper Laborjournal to talk about our initiative

Event
 

May 4th 2023 - 15:00-18:00

UBB, Lecture Hall 2

Guest speaker: Michaela Gindl

Event
 

Join us and let's demonstrate together with other collectives for feminist solidarity!

Event
 

Pamela Burger

March 3rd 2023 - 12:00-13:30

UBB, Seminar Room 5.1

Event
 

Bea Maas

January 20th 2023 - 12:00-13:30

UBB, Seminar Room 5.1

News
 

Workshop "Appointment training for future professors"

March 29-31 2023, in presence

Organised by the Gender Equality and Diversity Unit at the University of Vienna

Registrations until February 19 2023

Status Quo

Our latest data show that female biology students clearly dominate. Still 50% of the graduating PhD students are females. Employments, however, dramatically decrease from postdoc to professor level. In 2017, among the full professors at our faculty, only 10% were female, whereas 90% were male.

The proportion of women slowly decreases from Bachelor graduates (75%) to PhD graduates (60%), with a sudden drop to 30% for all postdoc positions (permanent or not), and the worst proportion of women (10%) for full professors.

Biology at University of Vienna (student data WS 2015/SS 2016; employment data March, 2017; absolute counts per category in brackets, gender proportion in percent)