HAInews 2023/01Female Empowerment – Film and Discussion Evening on Inspiring Female Founders

Successful and inspiring female founders and “female empowerment” were the topics of a film screening followed by a roundtable discussion for students and alumni on 12 December 2022. The Career Service and hei_INNOVATION, the university's transfer agency, in cooperation with the Gloria cinema, invited participants to the event, which featured the U.S. documentary "Dream, Girl".

The all-female film “Dream, Girl,” which premiered at the White House under U.S. President Barack Obama in 2016, tells the stories of successful women entrepreneurs in and around New York City – based on the feminist blog “Feminists Wednesdays,” where Erin Bagwell, one of the film's producers, introduces creative women around the world. In the film, ten of these women share how they mustered the courage to quit jobs to pursue their dreams, and how they overcame all the hurdles on the way to successfully launching their businesses.

The film screening in the packed cinema hall was followed by a discussion with four women from the local startup scene who shared their experiences: Computer scientist Olga Mordvinova founder of the company INCTEC for applications of AI technologies, media scientist and business psychologist Jana Seifert, managing director of the consulting agency Commha Consulting, computer scientist Marina Walther, co-founder of the startup kmapp, and philosopher Dr Claudia Sandoval-López, who has studied social networks in the startup scene and is now a project manager at the City of Heidelberg's Economic Development Department. “Female founders need role models, and they need them as early as possible,” Johanna Schwarz of hei_INNOVATION said as one summary of the event. What is needed, she said, is more sensitivity for the prerequisites of a startup by women, where often quite different needs have to be taken into account – and there is also a need for more events of this format: for female founders, for those who still want to become founders, and for those who support them in the process.

Alumni as well as students who are concerned with the topic of start-ups, have already founded a company or are planning to found one, are welcome to contact HAI to discuss support opportunities, joint events or other types of cooperation. Please email Simone Lasser: karriere@uni-heidelberg.de