Accommodating dual career couples
I start with this issue because it was highlighted in the extensive and almost uniformly unfavourable media coverage of the case that has now resulted in ETH Zurich’s
unprecedented action
. The suggestion that the dual career hiring was not justified by individual merit is contradicted by the outstanding scientific performance of the professor in this case. Dual career hires represent important recruitment opportunities for universities, but also pose significant challenges in terms of governance. The ETH Zurich leadership, having decided to make a dual career hire, also had the responsibility to ensure that issues of conflict of interest and governance were dealt with adequately.
Dual career hiring will almost certainly become more prevalent in the future. The professors that ETH Zurich seeks to recruit will always have options and they are increasingly unlikely to be willing to sacrifice a partner’s professional ambitions. Other world-class universities have found ways to accommodate and indeed benefit from dual career hiring. It is up to ETH Zurich to adopt appropriate policies and to ensure that dual career couples currently employed are fairly treated and not penalized for the conditions negotiated in their recruitment.
Minimizing unconscious bias
Because of gender-based stereotypes and unconscious bias, scientific colleagues at all levels, including students and doctoral students, treat male and female faculty differently. Unconscious bias affects women as well as men.
1,2
Both female and male students “perceive their male professors as ‘brilliant, awesome, and knowledgeable’, while the same teaching styles, when thought to come from a woman, are considered ‘bossy and annoying’.”
3
Although unconscious bias cannot be entirely eliminated, it can be substantially reduced by exercises (many available online) that reveal its impacts. Unconscious bias training should be a pre-requisite for leadership positions at ETH Zurich.
ETH Zurich is one of the most international universities in the world. Its faculty, students, doctoral researchers, and scientific staff come from more than 120 different countries, bringing along their cultural heritages and expectations. This diversity greatly enriches ETH Zurich, but can also lead to conflicts, especially when cultural assumptions are not articulated. Effective measures to identify and deal with cultural assumptions and expectations should be included in the orientation and leadership programs that ETH Zurich plans to institute.
Improving governance
In all organizations, informal networks provide channels for information exchange and support for professional advancement, problem solving and conflict resolution. Because women and other minorities tend to be excluded from these informal networks, they are more reliant on formal processes, procedures and information channels. All faculty members deserve transparency and fairness in resource allocation and the opportunity to serve on committees and in positions with decision-making power.
4
All professors should also be able to expect collegial support in resolving conflicts at an early stage. This is only possible when constructive criticism, honest feedback, and shared responsibility are valued in the institutional culture.
