Apart from your personal motivation, and choosing the right moment, to what extent is the success of the ETH WPF influenced by other factors, such as senior management?
An organization’s senior management – its personality, motivation and goals – are crucial to our cause. If women’s issues are not a priority, if the leadership lacks experience of or cannot relate personally to these issues, then there may well be a lack of understanding and awareness of our concerns. That’s why I think it’s important that an expert team such as the ETH WPF should provide advice and support on these questions.
The mandate defined for ETH Zurich by policymakers is also very relevant. At an earlier date, ETH Zurich was requested to increase the proportion of women professors to twelve percent, and then thirteen percent. Although this was a modest proportion (why not 30%?), the mandate at least indicates that the problem was recognized. But the question arises – what are the consequences of failing to meet these targets? If there are no consequences, mandates of this kind will not be taken seriously in the future.