Learning for Leadership
What does it mean when the first professor recommended for dismissal in 164 years is female? Eawag Director Janet Hering addresses three areas to develop in terms of ETH governance.
ETH Zurich appointed its first female professor in 1985, 130 years after opening its doors; by the end of 2017, 14% of the professors were women. It could be just a coincidence that the first formal action to dismiss a professor involves a female professor, but it could also tell us something about the challenges that female faculty face as an isolated minority within ETH Zurich. To identify these challenges is not a claim of gender-based discrimination. Rather, it is an attempt to address the gender dimensions of this case as well as issues that arise for individuals belonging to other minority groups.
I would like to highlight three issues that disproportionately affect female faculty: dual career situations, unconscious bias, and poor governance. I highlight these issues because ETH Zurich’s leadership is just beginning to address these particular issues in meaningful and concrete ways.
Accommodating dual career couples
I start with this issue because it was highlighted in the extensive and almost uniformly unfavourable media coverage of the case that has now resulted in ETH Zurich’s unprecedented action. The suggestion that the dual career hiring was not justified by individual merit is contradicted by the outstanding scientific performance of the professor in this case. Dual career hires represent important recruitment opportunities for universities, but also pose significant challenges in terms of governance. The ETH Zurich leadership, having decided to make a dual career hire, also had the responsibility to ensure that issues of conflict of interest and governance were dealt with adequately.
Dual career hiring will almost certainly become more prevalent in the future. The professors that ETH Zurich seeks to recruit will always have options and they are increasingly unlikely to be willing to sacrifice a partner’s professional ambitions. Other world-class universities have found ways to accommodate and indeed benefit from dual career hiring. It is up to ETH Zurich to adopt appropriate policies and to ensure that dual career couples currently employed are fairly treated and not penalized for the conditions negotiated in their recruitment.
Minimizing unconscious bias
Because of gender-based stereotypes and unconscious bias, scientific colleagues at all levels, including students and doctoral students, treat male and female faculty differently. Unconscious bias affects women as well as men.1,2 Both female and male students “perceive their male professors as ‘brilliant, awesome, and knowledgeable’, while the same teaching styles, when thought to come from a woman, are considered ‘bossy and annoying’.”3 Although unconscious bias cannot be entirely eliminated, it can be substantially reduced by exercises (many available online) that reveal its impacts. Unconscious bias training should be a pre-requisite for leadership positions at ETH Zurich.
ETH Zurich is one of the most international universities in the world. Its faculty, students, doctoral researchers, and scientific staff come from more than 120 different countries, bringing along their cultural heritages and expectations. This diversity greatly enriches ETH Zurich, but can also lead to conflicts, especially when cultural assumptions are not articulated. Effective measures to identify and deal with cultural assumptions and expectations should be included in the orientation and leadership programs that ETH Zurich plans to institute.
Improving governance
In all organizations, informal networks provide channels for information exchange and support for professional advancement, problem solving and conflict resolution. Because women and other minorities tend to be excluded from these informal networks, they are more reliant on formal processes, procedures and information channels. All faculty members deserve transparency and fairness in resource allocation and the opportunity to serve on committees and in positions with decision-making power.4 All professors should also be able to expect collegial support in resolving conflicts at an early stage. This is only possible when constructive criticism, honest feedback, and shared responsibility are valued in the institutional culture.
«It is high time for ETH Zurich to reform its procedures and processes and to adapt its culture to foster the full inclusion of women.»Janet Hering
Although conflict cannot be completely avoided, it can be managed to ensure – as much as possible – that all parties are treated fairly, that their justifiable concerns are addressed and that their personal and professional well-being is safeguarded. ETH Zurich should ensure that basic principles of good governance are incorporated in the by-laws of all Departments and that its support for conflict resolution (e.g., by Ombudspersons and trusted intermediaries) conforms to international standards.5
ETH Zurich has a long and distinguished history of research, education, and service to society. It is high time for ETH Zurich to reform its procedures and processes and to adapt its culture to foster the full inclusion of women.6 It is laudable that measures to accomplish this are now being developed as recently described by ETH President Joël Mesot. This will not only benefit women and other minorities, but also all members of the ETH Zurich community.
Further information
1 Bohnet, I. (2016) What Works: Gender Equality by Design, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 385 pp.
2 Catalyst, external page Unconscious Bias, accessed March 17, 2019.
3 The Century Foundation, external page How Student Evaluations Are Skewed against Women and Minority Professors, accessed March 17, 2019.
4 American Physical Society, external page Effective Practices for Faculty Recruitment and Retention, accessed March 17, 2019.
5 International Ombudsman Association, external page IOA Standards of Practice & Code of Ethics, accessed March 18, 2019.
6 Hering, J.G. (2018) “Women as Leaders in Academic Institutions: Personal Experience and Narrative Literature Review”, Pure & Applied Chemistry, external page https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2018-0603