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The proportion of women in university has steadily increased in recent years. Now the upper body has also been supplemented with two vice presidents.
The two new Vice Presidents Vanessa Wood (left) and Julia Dannath-Schuh with ETH President Joël Mesot.
ETH President Joël Mesot appeared before the media on Friday morning, accompanied by two women. To his left was Vanessa Wood, an ETH professor and renowned nanotechnology researcher. To her right, Julia Dannath-Schuh, a long-time psychology doctor and leadership culture consultant.
Mesot announced what the ETH Board had previously decided: the two women are expanding school management as vice presidents. Wood, 37, is now responsible for knowledge transfer and business relationships, and Dannath-Schuh, 43, for leadership and staff development.
The president of ETH placed great emphasis on the moment in the sleek Semper auditorium in the main building: “Today is an extremely important day for ETH. I’m sure the two women will use their skills to advance through college. “
Women on the rise
The school leadership now consists of seven people. Three of them are women. Previously, Chancellor Sarah Springman was the only top-tier female at ETH.
The Briton welcomed her two new teammates on Twitter.
A very warm welcome to our 2 new colleagues at@ETH_enExecutive Board Dr. Julia Dannath-Schuh as Vice President for Personnel and Leadership and Professor Dr. Vanessa Wood as Vice President for Industrial Relations and Transfer with the President@Joel_Mesot. 5th 7 members 3 👩 4 👨 average age ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/uNcjnXVIuJ
– Sarah Springman: please wear your mask …. (@springman_sarah) September 25, 2020
The change at the top corresponds to a development that has been observed in the university for some time. Women remain underrepresented at all levels. But ETH has become more feminine in recent years.
This is also shown by the so-called equality monitoring of the university. The unpublished report analyzes the situation of equality and diversity in studies and science at ETH.
This shows that the proportion of women among students increased in 2019 in 10 of the 16 departments. Some departments have grown significantly in the last four years: the Department of Biosystems has increased by 7 percent, the Department of Earth Sciences has increased the proportion of women by as much as 10 percent since 2015. Overall, it is now almost a third. The situation is similar for doctoral and post-doctoral students.
Women are also increasingly present in the chairs. The proportion of women among new appointments to permanent chairs was still only 21 percent. In 2019, however, half of all new assistant chair appointments were for women.
Women have also made progress in recent years in areas that have long been dominated by men. Between 2006 and 2012, only one of a total of 28 honorary doctorates was awarded to a woman. Since then, the proportion has increased significantly. In the last seven years it has averaged 35 percent.
Big differences and a leak
Despite these positive developments, the report also shows that ETH still has a lot of work to do. The large differences between the departments are striking. Although female students are the majority in health sciences, the proportion of women in the Department of Mechanical Engineering is chronically low: 12.5 percent.
Another problem is the so-called leaky pipe: the higher the level of academic career, the lower the proportion of women. Colleges and universities around the world are fighting this phenomenon. ETH is not exempt from this.
The phenomenon essentially begins at the senior assistant level and intensifies at the senior scientist level, according to the report. Therefore, female teachers remain a rarity in many areas.
This is particularly noticeable in the Department of Mathematics. More than a fifth of the students are women. In the case of teachers, however, their participation is less than 8 percent.
Such a mismatch can negatively affect young academics. Studies have shown that role models are essential: In departments where there are many female teachers, more women embark on an academic career. If role models are lacking, they more often choose a different path. This could also be the case in the ETH Department of Mathematics. Last year, the proportion of female doctoral students decreased by 5 percent.
Women and men perceive work at ETH very differently. In a recent internal survey, one in four women said they had felt discriminated against in some way in the past two years. For men it was only one in twenty.
“360 degree diversity”
The ETH justifies the expansion of school management in particular with the strong growth of the university. However, the election of the two new Vice-Presidents should also be seen as an attempt to take a step forward on terms of equality. For some time now, the subject has been given significantly more importance than in the past. This also has to do with Joël Mesot, who has placed the advancement of women high on his agenda since taking office in early 2019.
With Vanessa Wood and Julia Dannath-Schuh, the school leadership is not only becoming more feminine, but also younger. Therefore, Mesot spoke of a “diversity of 360 degrees” when presenting it and emphasized the abilities of the two women. “You bring with you skills that we don’t yet have in school management.”
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