Jumping right into it, or the first Lean-in Femspace meeting in Vienna

Written by Viktoria Tanczer, Translated by Rita Macskási-Temesváry, Photos: Nora Varga

On February 26^th, 2017, almost 30 pretty ladies assembled at the Viennese L’Office co-working space to experience personally what happens when suddenly a great idea comes up and gets thought further by ready-to-work people. This much was needed for the first Sunday afternoon meeting which took place only 1,5 weeks after the first idea. Past the initial contact via Facebook, things took their own dynamic and the avalanche keeps on taking everyone further.

However, to maintain the energy of the established Lean-In “female space”, an organized community is needed, where its members are ready and able to help each other. For this, Femspace is going to be an excellent platform to collect the Viennese Hungarian women into a colorful bouquet (spring is coming, yay!), who by sharing their experiences with, can support each other. The group’s members possess a vast amount of knowledge, independently of one’s formal education and diplomas. This is what Femspace aims at – to learn from each other and by that to advance and enable each other to do so. 

In the middle of its formation, the group already has an e-mail address, a Facebook and a Lean-in page, to which everyone should register to stay up-to-date on the latest developments and future happenings. The Lean-in platform provides us with a good framework to start our activities and provides access to a great amount of material, which we can read into. Apart from organizing events, Femspace wants to be active in topics such as legal advisory, establishments of business circles or even setting up a mentor program. Further impulse could be given to our activities if members find each other also based on personal interests. Thus, get out your desires, ideas and dreams hidden behind diapers, housework or job demands and put them into the collective for us to see what happens with them. Wait a moment, what if they come true?! J

With which topics can we help each other? Since our meeting, we know that some have worked at an office, in finance, music, the restaurant industry, have created businesses and have battled with absent personal competencies and conflict management. But what happens if we transform these past failures or situations, which we never want to relive again, into resilience and look at them as knowledge and experience? Instantly, they can be interesting input for others.

On Sunday, we have also found out which topics would mainly interest our likeminded peers: establishing a company, language learning, travelling, living freely (oh yeah! J), developing self- knowledge, changing career paths, work-life balance, in one word: finding my place in Austria.

It seems like we have a lot to ask form and tell each other. We have such knowledge and experience, which can be handed over to others in need of it. Our group is about organizing and using this knowledge in a conscious and smart way. Or be it only that we dress up from time to time, get outside of our 4 walls, chat, get some air so that our family and partner get back a better version our ourselves, an energized mother and crisp woman. Or to simply to be on good (better) terms with oneself.