Equal opportunities and gender monitoring at Swiss tier-one universities

How important are the 'Recommendations and good practices for filling professorships' drawn up by swissuniversities (and more specifically the Chamber of Universities)?

It is an important working tool enabling tier-one universities to further encourage critical thinking on appointment processes and to make these more transparent and equitable. Selection processes should be designed in such a way that women are not excluded due to unconscious prejudices ('implicit biases') or the non-consideration of CVs with family breaks. The quality of appointment processes is also important. Here, equal opportunities should be the yardstick used to measure the quality of the appointment process. Overall, the aim is to create a culture that takes gender equality and diversity aspects into account.

The 44% average proportion of women holding university assistant professorship positions in 2020 is encouraging. Why isn't the proportion of women holding full professorships (25%) higher?

The low proportion of women holding full professorships is a reflection of the 'leaky pipeline' phenomenon. However, historical analyses show that although most university professorships are not awarded to women in most disciplines, the proportion of women working at tier-one universities is systematically higher than in the general workforce. The proportion of women has thus risen steadily in recent years. For example, the proportion of newly appointed female assistant professors with tenure track was as high as 50% for each of the three years 2018 to 2020. After successful evaluation, these new appointments generally lead to more solid employment at different professorship levels (tenured, non-tenured, associate professorship). It can therefore be assumed that the proportion of women holding full professorships will steadily increase. Nevertheless, adequate measures are still needed.

It should also be emphasised that because of the long retention period of professors, any change in appointment practice made today (e.g. complete gender parity in new appointments) will only have a deferred impact on gender ratios, and could take several decades to come to fruition.

Furthermore, it should be noted in this context that increasing the proportion of women holding professorships must be achieved in keeping with the constitutional framework in order to avoid 'hard' quota regulations and respect the rights of all young academics - men and women alike - as the right to non-discrimination applied to both sexes.

What influence does the international environment have on the implementation of equal opportunities and gender mainstreaming at Swiss tier-one universities?

Research is international. Supporting young researchers means providing training to young men and women who are able to pursue a successful career that involves international competition, both within and outside the university. Accordingly, the international environment is also an important frame of reference for the implementation of equal opportunities and gender mainstreaming. Swiss tier-one universities are members of corresponding networks abroad and take part in the respective committees wherever possible.

The UK and Ireland have the Athena Swan Award, which is a certification system where the university has to reach a certain level (bronze, silver, gold) in order to qualify for funding. This is intended to improve equal opportunity structures and address gender issues over the long term. Can awards and certification systems be an incentive for this?

Ensuring quality is a key concern for tier-one universities, which is why quality assurance systems are designed with this goal in mind. In Switzerland, too, equal opportunities are a criterion for institutional accreditation (HEdA Art. 30, Para. a 5). However, quality assurance systems can also be designed differently. Among other things, tier-one universities implement such systems through university-specific action plans. This means that each higher education institution enjoys a certain amount of autonomy and latitude when it comes to implementation. A parallel system of tying funding eligibility to awards or additional criteria would be incongruent with this approach, quite apart from the question of why such prerequisites for funding eligibility should not also apply to other important issues, such as sustainability.

How well do Swiss tier-one universities compare internationally in terms of equal opportunities?

If equal opportunities are measured solely on the basis of professorship gender ratios, then we can say that Switzerland compares rather poorly compared to neighbouring countries and the rest of the EU. However, Swiss tier-one universities have shown strong support for their university action plans, which have achieved visibly positive results. It should also be noted that equal opportunities in science in a country cannot be viewed in isolation from other factors, such as the general compatibility of family and work, school schedules and childcare systems.