Concrete steps towards a gender balance

The phenomenon is well-known: some 30 per cent of all students and 25 per cent of doctoral students at ETH Zurich are women. The higher you look up the career ladder, the smaller the proportion of women. Only 9 per cent of full-time professors are women. Equal opportunities for women and men at all levels of the scientific career is as much a strategic objective of ETH Zurich as an attractive and motivating working environment for students and employees.

Executive Board launches action plan

In spring 2014 the Executive Board adopted a Gender Action Plan (GAP) and gave instructions for its implementation. ETH Zurich openly defines its position on equal opportunities for women and men in this action plan. At the same time, the action plan contains the key measures with which ETH plans to anchor a gender balance in the institution and in the in day-to-day routine in the long term. Clear responsibilities are part of this.

“ETH Zurich aims to increase the proportion of women at all academic levels and make it easier to balance studying, career and family. In doing so, it will strengthen the creativity and innovation at the university and therefore ETH Zurich’s international competitiveness,” says ETH President Ralph Eichler. “The Gender Action Plan therefore defines very concrete measures and specifies who is responsible for the implementation in a binding manner.”

Four areas of action

The measures listed in the Gender Action Plan continue ETH Zurich’s previous activities towards more equal opportunities and supplement them with new ones. They break down across four areas of action:

• Careers and career development in the academic area
• Integration of gender-specific aspects in research and teaching
• Facilitation of work/life balance, and
• Prevention and combat of sexual harassment and discrimination

ETH Zurich aims to increase the proportion of women at all academic career levels with its GAP. In addition, it plans to create learning and working conditions for all students and employees which allow them to balance their studies, career and family and pursue gender-specific interests.

From pupil to professor

Career development (action area 1) is about career building and mentoring programmes as well as information and networking events for professors, postdocs, doctoral students and students. Further measures relate to motivating pupils to take up studies in natural sciences and technology, excellence grant programmes for women, exchanging experiences with ETH graduates and equal opportunities in application procedures and when filling ETH-wide committees and management positions.

As regards the rolling out of gender aspects in research and teaching (action area 2), the GAP specifies various measures that start with gender-specific interests:

• the focus in teaching is on developing teaching and examination methods which are equally good for both women and men, and enriching courses or curricula with gender-specific aspects,
• in research, this involves taking into account a gender criterion for research applications,
• gender criteria are also taken into account in department evaluations, and awareness for the significance of gender differences is raised among ETH employees.

“If ETH Zurich takes gender-specific differences in teaching, research and knowledge transfer more strongly into account, it will manage to attract more women and base research results on a broader foundation,” says Renate Schubert, Associate Vice President Equal Opportunities.

Contributions to day nurseries

With a view to balancing family and career (action area 3), the Executive Board has also decided to provide additional funding for child care in day nurseries to supplement and support families from autumn 2014. This funding will in the future enable ETH employees to bring in line the costs for babies under the age of 18 months with the costs for children older than 18 months. Furthermore, the day nursery bottleneck at the Hönggerberg site will be eased.

“A sufficient number of good-quality day nursery places and affordable child care to supplement and support families is also part of promoting women in science and improving the balance between family, career and studies,” says Lino Guzzella, Rector and designated President of ETH Zurich.

ETH Zurich has a strict zero-tolerance policy of any form of sexual harassment or discrimination on the basis of gender (action area 4). If such problems become known, ETH takes an active and resolved approach. Contact centres for ETH employees are the Office of Equal Opportunities, the ombudspersons, the Human Resources department or the Legal department. The Compliance Guide provides information on the corresponding codes of conduct.