FEM4R&D

Women are still not equally represented in software development and engineering. As it becomes more and more difficult to find qualified women for positions in research projects with a strong focus on future technologies, SYNYO launched a dedicated career development programme through the FEM4R&D project. Furthermore, an integrated coaching by an external gender expert supported the start-up company to implement of a transparent and open internal career system.

Since the foundation of the SYNYO GmbH and specifically in the last few years, the development of the company showed continuous growth of its staff. Along with its fast growth, the management always put an emphasis on having a balanced gender proportion. However, it became more and more difficult to find qualified women for positions in software programming and research engineering.

The aim of the FEM4R&D project is to develop a multidimensional career development program for female programmers and technicians in different educational stages (Bachelor, Master, PhD, Post-Doc). The modular SYNYO-CONTINUOUS-CAREER-CUBE (SC3) is conceptualized as a long-term program that can be flexibly adjusted to the individual requirements as well as to the particular needs of the company.

On the one hand, the SYNYO-program aims at supporting the career-development of women in technical research and development. On the other hand, the project also aims at finding and recruiting qualified female programmers and engineers for SYNYO in order increase the proportion of women in these corporate departments.

A further aspect is related to that: pushing the visibility of career opportunities of women in the fields of information science and technology. By a well-aimed public relations work and particularly by a broad dissemination of the career program through various information channels, portals and Web 2.0 platforms as well as through audio-visual media, the options for women in IT and technical disciplines are highlighted.

The SYNYO-career-development-program, which is developed in the project, is integrated into the structure of the company in order to guarantee the sustainability of the project. The long-term vision of the project furthermore intends to position SYNYO as an innovative good-practice-example for other companies. On the long run, SYNYO wants to inspire other companies to also develop and implement programs for the career-development of women in research and development.

Keywords

Gender, women in technology, career development, SME, industry, developers, engineers