HearMeOut – Gender and Online-Meetings

Project Lead: Laura Wiesböck
Team: Julia Radlherr, Mai Linh Angelique Vo
Duration: June 2023 – December 2024
Funding: Digifonds of the Vienna Chamber of Labour


Since the COVID19-Pandemic work-related meetings are increasingly held via online tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Webex. This transition creates new rooms of communication for employees, which so far have not been analysed from a gender perspective. Several studies suggest that women face structural difficulties in making their voices heard in the context of in-person meetings, as they tend to get interrupted or ignored. However, research on gender-specific inequalities in virtual conferences, in which spatial relationships change and visual presentation is emphasized, remains scarce. The Project HearMeOut aims to close this gap by conducting a qualitative participatory study. Based on the results, a practical guideline for establishing gender equality in online meetings will be developed.