Women at ETH
Since the mid-1990s, more and more women are working and studying at ETH Zurich. Especially the percentage of women students has increased, currently accounting for roughly a third of the total number of students. Especially young women scientists from abroad are very attracted by the ETH. At present, the proportion of women is growing most strongly among assistant professors. However, on the professor level, a trend towards a more balanced gender ratio is still remarkably hard to achieve. Currently, the proportion of women professors is around 22%.
For many women, working as a scientist offers exciting and satisfactory career opportunities. Women professors at ETH can both smooth the way for younger researcher’s careers and motivate young, talented women to choose an occupation in the scientific and technical field. More and more women scientists at ETH are awarded important prices, showing that women increasingly set landmarks in science and have a considerable impact in different research fields.
Women at Universities: The Beginnings
When ETH Zurich was founded in 1855, it became the second European university to admit women to its study programs. Since, at that time, there were no upper secondary schools for girls in Switzerland, those to benefit from the progressive registration terms at ETH were mostly women from abroad.
The first female student at ETH Zurich was Nadezda Smeckaja from Russia, who, in 1871, registered for the Mechanical Engineering study program. A compatriot of hers, Marie Kowalik, was the first woman to graduate from ETH, having studied Agronomy and Forestry. However, female ETH students remained the exception for many more years. Only in Pharmacology and Teaching study programs, was the number of women not as low as in other study fields.
First Female Scientists
In Switzerland, it was very difficult for a woman to become a researcher. When, in 1897, Marie Baum started working as the first female scientific research assistant, there was major resistance against her employment, which was first limited to one year only. Hedwig Delpy and Laura Hezner were the first women to obtain a doctoral degree and a postdoctoral lecture qualification in 1909 and 1910, respectively. However, they did not continue their research at ETH. Marianne Plehns, an ETH graduate in Agronomy, was one of the first women to be appointed for a professorship in Germany.
For female scientists, the chance of finding adequate employment was limited, since only very few professors, e.g. geologist Heim or biologist Schröder, remained unimpressed by public criticism. Heim was the husband of the first female medical doctor in Switzerland, Marie Heim-Vögtlin. As the first female Swiss student at the University of Zurich, Marie Heim caused a countrywide controversy in Switzerland. Today, the promotion program for women of the Swiss National Science Foundation is named after her.
From the Struggle for Working Rights for Women to the First Female Professor
The majority of female students from abroad returned to their home countries with the outbreak of World War I, causing the proportion of women among students to drop drastically. Between the two world wars, the right for women to work became one of the main goals of the different women's organizations in Switzerland. In 1928, the Swiss Exhibition for Women's Work was organized in Bern. The artistic director of the exhibition was Lux Guyer, one of Switzerland's first female architects, who had completed part of her studies at ETH Zurich.
Thanks to the liberalization of society and the sustained economic growth after World War II, the number of female students at universities rose continuously. The growth in the proportion of women at ETH was significantly lower than at other universities, which was attributable to its technical focus. An exception were Pharmacology and Biology, which arose considerable interest in female Matura graduates. Consequentially, it was a biologist, who, in 1979, was appointed ETH's first female honorary professor: geobotanist Krystina Urbanska. However, it was only in 1985, when ETH Zurich got its first ordinary female professor, with the appointment of architect Flora Ruchat-Roncati.
Establishing Specific Promotional Measures
Female students and female scientists at ETH Zurich began to stand up for their interests quite at the same time. Women started criticizing that the promotion and working structures in research were tailored specifically for men and asked for more women to be appointed to professorships, for specific measures to promote young female scientists, and for the creation of daycare places for children.
In 1993, all these efforts resulted in the foundation of ETH's Office of Equal Opportunities. Geologist Katharina von Salis played an important role in the whole process. She first had a consultative function within Equal!. Later on, she became a co-initiator and the first president of the Swiss Federal Equal Opportunities program. In this position, her achievements for women at Swiss universities were remarkable. ETH president Jakob Nüesch was also very committed to the cause. When he resigned in 1997, there were twelve ordinary and extraordinary female professors as well as five honorary and eight assistant professors working at ETH Zurich.
During the last years, the proportion of women amond students and doctoral students amounted to around 33%. However, on the level professor, 22% women are present. Current numbers an be found in the yearly Equality Monitoring. ETH wants to further increase the proporiton of women among students and researchers and is investing into promotional measures on all levels. Further information can be found in the Gender Action Plan.
The ETH Zurich Library's platform "Explora" provides an exciting overview of the history of ETH Zurich and the long road to equality and equal rights for men and women in academic institutions in Switzerland. Learn more here.
1855 When ETH opened its doors women were explicitly entitled to study.
1871 The first female student, Nadezda Smeckaja from Russia, begins her studies in mechanical engineering.
1877 The first female graduate, Marie Kowalik from Russia, finishes her studies in agronomy and forestry.
1879 The first female pharmacologist, Concordia Isotomine from Russia, finishes her studies.
1895 The first female Swiss student, Maja Knecht, graduates in natural sciences.
1909 The first woman, Hedwig Delpy from Germany, acquires a doctor’s degree from ETH. She is the sixth doctoral candidate since ETH was entitled to confer the doctorate in 1908.
1910 The first woman to qualify as a senior lecturer is the geologist Laura Herzner from Germany.
1919 The first woman to qualify as a civil engineer is Elsa Diamant from Hungary.
1923 The first woman to graduate as an architect is Flora Steiger-Crawford from Scotland.
1976 The association of students at ETH elects its first female president, Barbara Haering, the later member of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland.
1979 The first woman to acquire the title of a honorary professor is the geobotanist Krystina Urbanska.
1985 The first woman to acquire a full professorship is the architect Flora Ruchat-Roncati.
1987 The VESADA association is founded by committed female students, assistants, lecturers and graduates from ETH. It fosters networking under women scientists and demands increased efforts for the advancement of women at ETH.
1991 A staff unit for women affairs is founded to coordinate and implement the suggestions for improvement concerning the advancement of women.
1992 The first woman to receive the title of a honorary doctor from ETH is the American environmental activist Donella H. Meadows.
1993 ETH’s Office for Equal Opportunity is founded.
1997 ETH already counts eight full, three associate and eight assistant women professors. Besides five women researchers are entitled a professor.
2007 The first woman to be elected as rector of ETH is Heidi Wunderli-Allenspach, professor for biopharmacology. As such she is member of the Executive Board and responsible for education at the ETH.
2019 The Office for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men becomes the Office for Equal Opportunities and Diversity.
2021 By the strategical expansion of the diversity topics in 2021, it was renamed to ETH Diversity.
Sources:
Eidgenössische Kommission für Frauenfragen (Hg.): Frauen- und gleichstellungspolitische Ereignisse in der Schweiz 1848-1998, Bern 1999.
Stelle für Chancengleichheit von Mann und Frau an der ETH Zürich (Hg.): Wege in die Wissenschaft. Professorinnen an der ETH: 16 Portraits, Zürich 1997.
The First Female Professors at ETH Zurich
The list only contains tenured professors, but no assistant professors. All inaugurations until 2000 are registered. Names are listed in alphabetical order (by family name) if several women were appointed professor in the same year.
Sources:
- «Wege in die Wissenschaft. Professorinnen an der ETH Zürich.» ETH Zurich, September 1997
- Internet and ETH for complementary information
Meaning:
- "em." : retirement, becoming Professor emerita
At ETH Zurich, the first so-called "Female Association" was founded at the Department of Computer Science in 1993. A female association is an association of mainly female students and doctoral students from one or two neighbouring departments with the aim of making the women of these departments visible with their interests and needs.
The first Female Association, today known as CSNOW (Network of Women in Computer Science), was founded in 1993 under the name «Frauenförderung» and was followed by other female associations in other departments almost two decades later, most notably the LIMES group (Ladies in Mechanical and Electrical Studies) in 2012. Interestingly enough, women are particularly involved in such associations in departments with a low proportion of women at student and at doctoral level. With their commitment to female associations, women are active role models in two ways. Firstly, they show that it is possible to successfully engage oneself in bringing one’s own interests to bear in a large institution such as ETH Zurich. Secondly, female associations make it possible for female students and doctoral candidates to be more visible in the departments concerned, where male dominance often prevails at all levels in terms of numbers.
Nowadays, 10 of the 16 departments of ETH Zurich have female associations, which are generally financially supported by the respective departments. In addition to CSNOW, LIMES (Departments of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering) has been active since 2012. The departments D-MAVT and D-ITET also have a very low proportion of female students and female doctoral candidates (D-MAVT: 10.5% or 15.6%, D-ITET: 17.7% or 18%). Further female associations are the «Society for Women in Natural Sciences» (WINS) at D-CHAB (founded in 2014) or «Phimale» at D-MATH and D-PHYS (founded in 2016). The «Parity Group» has been active at D-ARCH since 2014. «EqualiTea» was founded at D-ERDW in 2017 and the «Society for Women in Social Studies and Humanities» (SWiSH) at D-GESS in early 2018. Since 2014, D-BAUG has had the «Bauingenieurinnen FORUM» for female graduates and since 2017, they have had the «Netzwerk der Wasseringenieurinnen» (NeWI); the «Gender and Diversity Group» for students and doctoral students of the department was also founded in 2017.
Female Associations are run by their members (mainly women, but occasionally also men) on their own initiative. The associations organise information days and taster days for schoolgirls and especially for female school leavers, organise lectures and discussions, make company visits possible, set up mentoring programmes, conduct surveys and studies, contribute to university policy decisions and – last but not least – see themselves as social networks within the ETH, where women support and strengthen each other. Since 2015, the Equal Office of the ETH has been working closely with these female associations, maintaining a regular exchange of information and occasionally supporting events in the relevant departments.
The external pageWomen Professors Forum (WPF), founded in 2012, contributes to improving the visibility of female professors at ETH Zurich. Over 80% of female professors at ETH Zurich are members of this association. They create a broad platform to connect female researchers from various disciplines and to strengthen the female role model in science.