Making women more visible: Second Women's* Empowerment Convention on the 23rd of April in Münster

23 April 2024 | Münster

Increasing the representation and visibility of women in entrepreneurship, the start-up scene, leadership and innovation - that was the aim of the second Women's Empowerment Convention.

Together with the TAFH and the REACH - EUREGIO Start-up Center, we organised the successful event, where 250 participants took part and used the opportunity to exchange ideas and network.

Kicking off with Paula Menninghaus, we activated the crowd. As the co-founder of the sports company Strong Partners, she explained what is important in networking: "Networking doesn't just mean finding new contacts and engaging in dialogue, but also maintaining contacts". Meeting at eye level, being on first-name terms and having to deal with a lot of people in your own profession makes networking easier. Together with REACH, Paula developed a networking guide with lots of practical tips.

Vera Strauch, founder of the Female Leadership Academy, gave the keynote speech. She is committed to fairer structures in the world of work and takes a critical and constructive look at collaboration, leadership and organisational development from a feminist perspective. "For good leadership, we need a form of connection. The centre is the community," she says. When it comes to the question of how people want to work together, feminist leadership - characterised, among other things, by respect and the credo "power with others instead of power over others" - comes up against a patriarchal understanding, i.e. dominance and competition.

How equal opportunities can be shaped through systemic and individual change was the topic of a concluding panel discussion. Prof. Dr. Sue Rossano-Rivero from the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences and Monja Meier, founder of EASI Control GmbH, took part alongside Vera Strauch. Maike Giesbert and Dr Elisa Franz from the team at our university and TAFH Münster GmbH acted as moderators. Some insights were that leadership needs diversity and that people in leadership should be authentic. As far as the compatibility of family and career is concerned, there is still a lot of room for improvement overall.

With the Women's* Empowerment Convention, we want to inform, empower and invite everyone to a critical and open dialogue. By promoting the interaction between different stakeholders, we are striving towards building the bridge between science and society with practical applications. 

We are looking forward to the next event on the 9^th of April 2025, which is already being planned.