“I’m noticing a sense of optimism”

Ms Dannath, the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is #BreakTheBias. What forms of bias are women still facing today?
Julia Dannath: The expectation that women will take primary responsibility for family and care work is something I still encounter today. Time and again throughout my career, I have been told that I have achieved a lot for a woman. Statements like this hit me quite hard and leave a bad taste in my mouth. Women are also still confronted with the bias that men tend to be better suited to the sciences and technical subjects. But it is also important to explore the issue of bias not only from a gender perspective. Discrimination and disadvantage often also take place on the basis of other factors, such as ethnic background, skin colour, age or sexual orientation.

How can we overcome such biases?
When dealing with diversity, we need to be aware of how quickly categorisations and attributions can turn into implicit biases. The implications of bias when appointing professorships are particularly far-reaching. This is why we want to use workshops in future to raise awareness of this issue among members of appointment committees. Given that an open and impartial approach to working with one another also forms the foundation of our community here at ETH Zurich, we launched the Respect campaign last October.

What does the campaign aim to achieve?
We wanted to remind people that behaviour such as bullying, harassment, discrimination or even intimidation and violence have no place at our university. In particular, we wanted to encourage ETH staff to actively intervene whenever they witnessed someone being subjected to prejudice or derogatory remarks, or whenever they came across inappropriate behaviour. We then once again made people aware of the different contact and advice services available at ETH Zurich.

Coming back to gender balance: just 18 percent of professors at ETH Zurich are female, and 32 percent of its students. Is this because of the biases we’ve talked about, or are there other reasons for this?
When asked about their reasons for leaving the field of science, female doctoral students and postdocs highlight four issues: the incompatibility of an academic career and family life, the mobility required and the insecurity that comes with a career in academia. Added to this is the intense competition surrounding professorships, with many women not wanting to engage in this issue as it is not in keeping with their values. We need to tackle these points. Yet we also shouldn’t forget that ETH Zurich does not exist in a vacuum separate from society. Improving the gender balance at ETH also necessitates a societal shift.

What societal changes are needed?
We need to support a better balance between work and caring responsibilities. In Switzerland, the cost of childcare and support for other dependants remains high, can be difficult to organise and is less socially integrated than in other countries. This is why we offer ETH staff and students a free advice service and aim to build up a network across ETH to support staff and students with caring responsibilities. We also need more female role models and networks where women support each other.

What networks and support programmes for young female scientists and professors are there at ETH Zurich?
Some examples that come to mind are the external pageETH Women Professors Forumcall_made, external pageH.I.T.call_madeexternal page– High Potential University Leaders Identity & Skills Trainingcall_made or external pageCONNECT – Connecting Women’s Careers in Academia and Industrycall_made. In particular, I’d like to highlight a programme called external pageFix the Leaky Pipelinecall_made, which gives young female scientists the opportunity to reflect on their professional situation, plan their career, undertake further training and expand their network. This programme has already been running for 15 years.

What can be done to counteract the “leaky pipeline” phenomenon?
As mentioned previously, the reasons why women leave an academic career early are varied and can’t be eliminated through one single action. So there is no cure-all that would provide a solution to this issue. It calls for interconnected services and measures that tackle all the different structural inequalities, and above all, it calls for an inclusive university culture that revolves around diversity.

Where have we made the most significant progress at ETH Zurich in recent years?
Over the past two years, more than 40 percent of new professorships at ETH have been awarded to women. And the proportion of women will continue to grow, as about 90 percent of retiring professors are men. Alongside these positive signals, I am really noticing a sense of optimism at ETH Zurich. Issues of equality, diversity and inclusion are receiving lots of attention across all levels and are being integrated into strategic considerations more and more often. In September 2021, for example, our Executive Board tasked the Vice President’s Office for Personnel Development and Leadership with developing a diversity strategy. Equal opportunities, including in education, are a core value for ETH. Services to promote women’s careers, encouraging gender and diversity-sensitive teaching, the use of inclusive language, promoting balance – this all demonstrates the weight that ETH attaches to the issue of equal opportunities in all its facets. Instrumental to this were above all the courage and commitment of our first and second-generation female professors.