Susanne Justesen explaining the secret of Space Beagle
Changing understanding of gender roles, coexistence of different ethnic backgrounds, growing individualisation – as societies keep transforming and become more diverse, people’s needs diversify as well. Researchers from both science and industry address such changes to develop products and services that meet these new needs.
The forum Innovation needs Diversity! by EAF (European Academy for Women in Politics and Economy) brought together a select group of researchers from industry and academic institutions to discuss their relevant findings, methods and developments.
First Nina Bessing gave insights in EAF’s sociological research work on gender and diversity in various industrial contexts, presenting for example how women in Germany have undergone a paradigm shift from their image of naive and unattentive drivers in the seventies to powerful desicion makers in automotive design and car purchasing today. Women are generally more driven by practical aspects than men, who seem to give more value to the appearance of the vehicle that drives them.
Sandra Buchmüller from Deutsche Telekom Laborartories presented the Gender Inspired Technology project which both EAF and IxDS had been collaborating on since January 2009. What are women’s needs in mobile communication today? How do they protect their privacy and do they take time for non-communication? Women of different age groups and social backgrounds participated in this research with self-observation, building personal prototypes, role play and discussions.
Participatory design was a much discussed method at the forum, also addressed by Susanne Maaß in the field of gender studies and computer science, and condensed by Reto Wettach with his presentation “From User-Centred Design to Co-Creation”.
Susanne Justesen of Innoversity gave a very inspiring talk about how teams often do have members with great diverse backgrounds and talents, however those voices often remain unheard when facing dominant individuals and deadlocked procedures. If a culture of diversity is meant to unfold, the 30 percent rule is critical; a group needs for example at least 30 percent of women for them to have an impact.
The final panel with Armgard von Reden of IBM, Helga Lukoschat of EAF, Heinrich Arnold of Deutsche Telekom Laboratories and Claudia Neusüß of Technische Universität Berlin discussed the practical management and status quo of gender and diversity in large companies and academic structures. Especially in Germany the arrangement of family and work life is still one of the major issues, as well as the question of how to get women more involved in traditionally male domains. Thus, still lots to do to make diversity and gender just another common asset of everyday life.