Gender Action

In its Gender Action Plan, ETH Zurich defines in a binding manner how it intends to achieve a gender balance at various academic levels and who is responsible for implementation. This plan identifies concrete instruments and addresses the following four sub-areas:

The D-BIOL is committed to supporting students and employees at all levels equally throughout their careers, to creating family-friendly and barrier-free structures and to practising respectful interaction with one another.

The Leaky Pipeline: Instrument to identify the need for action in the Department of Biology

Leaky pipeline graph — Proportion of women and men at different academic levels

In contrast to the majority of technical and scientific disciplines, in biology there is only a discrepancy between the number of women and men in the same functions at a few levels. Looking at the number of degrees, the distribution between the two sexes is balanced up to the postdoc level. There is a particular need for action at the level of senior assistants, scientific staff and at the professorial level.

In order to further reduce the remaining discrepancies, the D-BIOL has created the position of Equal Opportunity Officers (EOO). Prof. Frédéric Allain and Prof. Ulrike Kutay have been elected for this task. They are the contact persons for this topic within the D-BIOL, but also act as an interface between the department and the Equal! office of ETH Zurich.

Membership of external pageIDEAS, the association of equal opportunities officers of the Swiss universities, ensures that goals such as equal opportunities, inclusion and diversity are consistently pursued and implemented at all levels of ETH Zurich. The association serves as a meeting and networking point, for the exchange of information, mutual support, coordination, planning and implementation of joint activities and projects, and as representation in national committees.