It is generally believed that a high level of initial qualification leads to continuous full-time employment with periodic advancements and a constant increase in earnings. This may be true for most male biographies but is far less applicable for female biographies. Generally, in the countries/regions involved in this project, investments in education do not pay off as well for women as they do for men. There is an urgent need to investigate deeper into this problem, to analyse and to document its causes and its effects (on a societal and individual level) to be able to take up actions to combat it. In this respect it is of great importance to learn about possible effects of this fact on the motivation of women to attend lifelong learning activities! The willingness of women to participate in further training and qualification may suffer if they have to fear to go unrewarded.

This investigation will be done (a) by interviewing 12 (highly) qualified women in each partner country/region about their private life and professional career, the interviews will be analysed and discussed during the project meetings where similarities and differences between the partner countries will be identified; (b) by inviting experts to each project meeting who will give a speech on the situation of women in the respective region and discuss with the participants.

The 12 biographic interviews as well as the speeches/discussions at the project meetings will be published in five brochures (one brochure in each country in the country’s language) and disseminated on a large scale (conference, PR-campaign, press conference, etc.).