SVA President: Women’s quota for professorships is worth considering
Published: Wednesday, Jun 26th 2024, 05:10
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Only a quarter of professorships in Switzerland are held by women - according to the President of the Swiss Association of Women Academics (SVA), a women's quota is therefore worth considering: "It's worth thinking about a women's quota for professorships," said Ursula Bolli-Schaffner.
She has always struggled with quotas. But: "At some point I came to the realization that quotas are sometimes necessary, because otherwise hardly anything moves," said Bolli-Schaffner in an interview with Tamedia published on Wednesday. "It would be nice if the percentage of female professors in each department at least matched that of female students."
The reasons for the unequal gender ratio are complex, says Bolli-Schaffner. Women still often take shorter careers than men when it comes to family planning, for example. Reconciling career and family is still very difficult in the academic world. This is also due to the pressure to publish. "Added to this are fixed-term employment contracts, professional insecurity and precarious working conditions in the academic world," said the SVA President. This also affects men.
Childcare and flexible working hours
The universities need to improve the framework conditions. For Bolli-Schaffner, this includes support for crèche places and flexible working hours. "Part-time professorships only work if men do it too. And if the institutions also encourage this or at least make it possible."
The pressure to publish must also decrease: "The excellence of the papers is not necessarily measured by the number," said Bolli-Schaffner. Productivity increases when stress decreases. "More female professors enrich science," said the SVA President. "Highly educated women must not be left out of the top positions at the end. This also makes no economic sense, as studying is not only associated with high personal costs, but is also expensive in economic terms."
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