Fostering Equal Opportunities
WSL promotes a culture in which men and women work together to create a non-discriminatory working environment where women have the same opportunities for career advancement as men. There are several measures in place at WSL for promoting equal opportunities. You can find them summarized in our overview on the WSL Equity Strategy 2022-2024. The extended version of the WSL Gender Action Plan 2022-2024 can be found here.
Equal Pay Analysis
The ETH Board had the six institutions of the ETH Domain examine whether women and men are paid the same for the same work. The results are encouraging: all institutions meet the equal pay requirements and achieved values that are within the tolerance threshold of 5% permitted by the federal government. Further information can be found here.
Women’s Peer Mentoring Group
The Women’s Peer Mentoring Group (PMG) is a self-organized group of early-career female scientists on short-term contracts at WSL/SLF. The PMG supports its members as they make career path choices and develop the necessary skills to gain recognition as scientists or for a successful transition to a non-academic career. You can read more about the PMG here.
Fix the Leaky Pipeline
The Fix the Leaky Pipeline program is run by the six institutions of the ETH Domain, including WSL. It offers young female scientists the opportunity to reflect on their professional situation, to develop a strategy for embarking on a career path, to receive further targeted training, and to extend their personal and scientific networks.
CONNECT in academia and industry
CONNECT is a program set up by the ETH Domain and the University of Zurich in collaboration with their project partners to encourage women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to plan and develop their career according to their own vision.
feMLEAD - female Mentoring: Leadership for Equity And Diversity at PSI, Empa and WSL
The Mentoring Programme is a competitive programme aimed at women, who would like to take on a leadership role in the future. It has been externally evaluated as unique due to:
- being open for all women (scientists, technicians as well as women working in administration)
- being open for women who have not yet taken on a leadership role
The cross-institutional programme is open to ambitious mentees and mentors from the participating institutions WSL, PSI, Empa and Eawag. Further information and the next application window can be found here and for WSL employees here.
Public Sector Equal Pay Charter
In November 2019, WSL signed the Charter of Equal Pay in the Public Sector, thereby sending an important signal of its commitment to wage equality.
11 February: International Day of Women and Girls in Science
In 2015, the United Nations declared 11 February as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science to promote the equal participation of women in research.
On the International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2023, we focused on the next generation - teenage girls who are wondering what career is right for them and what subjects fascinate them. Meet them in our video series.
WSL took action in 2022, focusing not only on women scientists, but on all women from different areas of WSL's work. Because outstanding science is not the work of individuals, but is created collectively.
The aim was to give visibility to our female colleagues and their competences. More than sixty pictures were taken, of which we present a selection at the bottom of this page.
In 2021, WSL produced this Video clip.
