Female Associations and Diversitygroups/delegates at ETH Zurich

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 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.