1993: Centring Women's Studies: Establishment of the “Inter-University Coordination Bureau for Women’s Research and Women’s Studies Vienna”
Women’s and Gender Studies are well established at the University of Vienna in the 1980s at the latest, but it is not part of university structures yet. In 1992, Edith Saurer becomes the first professor for Women’s History at the University of Vienna. Thanks to the lobbying of a group of female scientists, Saurer among them, the “Inter-University Coordination Bureau for Women’s Research and Women’s Studies Vienna” („Interuniversitäre Koordinationsstelle für Frauenforschung und Frauenstudien Wien“) is founded in 1993 and legally anchored. The Coordination Bureau is a big and important step to anchor the topics in university structures. Apart from the University of Vienna, the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, the University of Applied Arts and the Vienna University of Economics and Business are part of it. After 2000, the topics of the Coordination Bureau are divided into two parts: the University of Vienna creates one facility for gender studies, and another for the advancement of women.