Problem addressed

Largest gender-specific income differences in the Steyr-Kirchdorf region: The Leader regions “Nationalpark Kalkalpen” and “Traunviertler Alpenvorland” have the highest gender-specific income differences and income losses in Upper Austria: Women in this region earn around EUR 14,000 less than men per year. Exploiting opportunities for women in rural areas: Rural regions are struggling with out-migration trends on the one hand and an increasing demand for workers on the other. In the Steyr-Kirchdorf economic region, there are already initiatives to promote the potential of skilled workers, such as the worklifehub of the TIZ Kirchdorf or the Zukunftsregion Steyr of the TIC Steyr, of which the Frauenstiftung Steyr is a member. In addition, more than 20 IT companies have joined forces in the IT-Experts Austria network in order to strengthen Steyr as an IT location. In addition, the FrauenBerufsZentren Steyr and Kirchdorf of the Frauenstiftung Steyr work to improve the individual professional development of job-seeking women. In this ESF project "KompetenzNetzwerk", these initiatives and both Leader regions are involved as strategic partner organizations in order to exploit the opportunities of economic and social development, especially for women in rural areas, with new, holistic and women-specific offers. 

1) Opportunity: Digitalization Digitalization is a lever for regional development: digitization is creating numerous new job opportunities. So far, however, men and urban areas have benefited more from this employment growth than women. Due to the high demand for personnel, new forms of training are becoming increasingly important alongside traditional IT training. In addition to specific training courses, there is also a need for decentralized training courses on basic digital skills as a prerequisite for individual career paths and to be able to take advantage of opportunities for new remote forms of work and services. However, due to the concentration of training and further education in urban areas, there is a risk that without specific activities, the digital divide between urban and rural areas will widen, especially for women. 

2) Opportunity: New forms of work - New Work New Work means a fundamental change in the world of work. It offers an opportunity for gender equality, especially in rural areas, by providing scope for women to better divide their own time between work, private tasks and leisure. So far, however, women have not benefited as much from these new forms of work, as family work is still mainly carried out by them despite flexible working hours, the opportunities offered by digitalization are not sufficiently exploited for new forms of work or career steps are still dependent on a visible, personal presence and networking. In order to take advantage of the benefits of New Work, new holistic training and networking opportunities are therefore required. In the context of digitalization, these must also relate to the questioning of role stereotypes, good time and self-management, forms of hybrid working and agile leadership in flexible teams, taking on management functions, increasing income and opportunities for new (digital) places of exchange and mutual support.

Innovative solution

Social innovation: 

This project innovatively combines the goals of gender equality in the labour market with the goals of women's policy, regional development, education policy and the digitalization strategy. The project promotes a self-determined and economically independent life for women in rural areas according to their professional and private life situation by reconciling the opportunities of digitalization with the opportunities of new forms of work and thus making the best possible use of them. At the same time, the regional economy is strengthened and a women-specific structure for education and professional cooperation in rural areas is created. 

Process innovation 

The development of a regional skills network to improve women's career development and income requires a structured and participatory approach. The involvement of affected women, strategic partnerships and regional/local initiatives in the development of the concrete content of the competence network enables new processes by including needs and challenges that women face in terms of career development and income. The participation of affected women and different disciplines in the entire development process of the competence network thus goes beyond traditional top-down approaches, promotes new solution-oriented decision-making processes and empowers women by giving them an active role in shaping solutions to their challenges.

Key results and benefits

In collaboration with strategic partners, the competence network “Frauenzukunft - Digitalisierung - New Work” focuses on comprehensive, versatile and needs-based empowerment of women in order to sustainably improve their income situation. The results of the project relate to empowerment, the reduction of horizontal and vertical segregation, the use of the opportunities of digitalization and new work as well as selfempowerment. In particular, the following results are expected:

 - Empowerment: Thanks to the participatory approach, women are co-creators of the project right from the start by being involved in the development and planning of the services. This enables them to represent their interests and make use of their creative freedom. The participants acquire the necessary skills in the areas of digitalization and New Work in needs-based courses. This includes both technological skills and an understanding of modern work concepts. It thus strengthens women's professional skills and helps to improve their chances on the labor market and increase their income. 

- Reducing horizontal segregation: The project opens up career prospects in the IT sector for women in reorientation processes by promoting new training courses (e.g. IT consultant) and working together with IT companies. Through coaching and further training, the participants are shown career opportunities in the region, funding opportunities are clarified and further steps are planned. 

- Reducing vertical segregation: The project creates awareness of gender-specific salary and management structures and supports women in achieving more demanding and better-paid positions in their professional fields, taking on management functions, increasing working hours or opening up new (additional) income opportunities. 

- Digitalization: By improving women's access to training and professional opportunities, the opportunity that digitalization offers, especially for rural areas, is exploited. The project contributes to strengthening the IT region of Steyr-Kirchdorf with well-paid jobs for women and thus contributes to equal opportunities in the region. 

- New Work: Through coaching and further training, participants are supported in taking advantage of the opportunities offered by New Work in terms of flexible working hours, remote working locations, agile teams, etc. and in achieving a better work-life balance. The project thus helps women to incorporate and help shape innovative new forms of work in their areas of work. 

- Self-empowerment: The project offers a platform for exchange and cooperation in the context of digitalization and new work. This enables women to learn from each other and implement innovative approaches in their own work contexts. Synergies are created in joint exchange, the use of resources and cooperation, from which the women benefit both professionally and personally

Potential for mainstreaming

The competence network is a completely new offering that combines new educational and cooperation formats in connection with professional income, digitalization and new work in a rural region. The project is creating a model description that will enable it to be rolled out in other regions. 

In addition, the competence network is an interface to existing funding programs (e.g. Leader, Public Employment Service). It offers openness for the development of additional new services, products and projects that can be submitted and implemented in regional or labor market-related funding programs.