Change starts with women!

According to ETH's latest gender monitoring report, around 12% of students at D-​INFK are women, while the share of females at ETH level is almost three times higher (30.6%). Female bachelors in computer science hold an average of only 10%, whereas the proportion of female masters is by 14%. So, it is vitally important that the department has promotion processes for female students with aspiration, knowledge and skills. D-​INFK is committed not just to develop a pipeline for promotion at different levels, but also to provide advice and support, such as mentoring.

Christina, Adrian, you have led the Frauenfoerderung for the last 3.5 years. Your group has just received a significant amount of funding from Google. Congratulations! Indeed, promoting women requires sponsorship, but also enormous amount of work and patience. Do you feel any slowdown of energy, enthusiasm and exuberance?
Adrian Altenhoff: Thanks for your warm congratulations :-) I still enjoy very much the challenging assignments. The department gives us a lot of freedom to decide what we wanna do, when and with whom we collaborate. We have the chance to get things moving, to change matters for the better with new ideas and a new way forward. Variety of opportunities and flexibility in action are the spice of our work. With Google's generous financial backing, we can better take account of the diversity of our target groups, their specific needs and concerns, and are able to offer suitable services and events without having to allow ourselves to be restricted by third parties. But still, in the near future I have to hand over my co-leadership of the FF to a successor, as I will soon finish my PhD studies. Also, I am convinced that the new leaders will bring additional energy and inspiring fresh perspectives to the FF.

Christina Poepper: The topic of promoting women in computer science remains of great interest to me, an affair of the heart, and even more when further opportunities arise, for example through Google's substantial donation or when we establish and succeed to maintain personal contacts to interested and interesting people. I have the desire to make a difference and have an impact. Still, like for Adrian, it is slowly becoming time for me as well to "let go" of the FF, set sail for new shores and get ready for upcoming missions.

The media is not a monolith, and some would say its primary mission is to preserve the machinery of democracy. What hidden details should the mainstream media know about the Frauenfoerderung at D-INFK, its program activities and initiatives? What makes you different than other women's academic organizations?
CP: Our most important and best-known activity is certainly the "Schnupperstudium", a one-week introductory course for female high-school graduates whose matura-theses in computer science we sometimes coach as well. Furthermore, we are involved in workshops and continuing trainings for teachers and we participate in academic studies, currently in the project "G(un)st – geschlechts-(un)typische Studienwahl" of the Paedagogische Hochschule, the college of education in Zurich. Of course, we also offer courses, workshops and mentoring programs for the female students at D-INFK. And we deal with the press which is not as uncommon as one may think … I would like people to know that the few number of women in computer science in Switzerland is not constitutional, but it is strongly influenced or even made by the society. Countries and areas like Southern and Eastern Europe and the Middle East tend to have (much) higher participation of women in computer science studies.

AA: In terms of media – or even better the public –, I would like them to know that the small percentage of women in computer science has been recognized as a problem in the industrial sectors and therefore steps are being taken to tackle this issue. My observations and discussions with peers show that the image of computer science – as a discipline for "nerdy" men – is worse than deserved and that companies such as Google or IBM partner with us in order to counteract this. By the way, we are the only department at ETH which offers a "Schnupperwoche". The aim of this taster week is to give prospective female students realistic insights into computer science. Using real, "tangible" women role models from research and industry, we try to demonstrate that computer science has many attractive jobs, projects and positions to offer to women. It could be rather beneficial, if opinion-leading media pick up such portraits of computer scientists and "popularize” them.

What are the three priorities of the two of you for 2011? Do you plan for instance partnerships with women leaders of political, commercial or social structures with the view to meet, exchange ideas and learn?
CP: One priority for us is to establish better networking among our female master's and doctoral students at the department. Currently, if PhD students do not study together at ETH, they hardly know each other. We would like to offer more opportunities for personal and professional exchange. And still, we continue with our major goal to attract more women to study computer science at D-INFK. In this context we are always searching for women with interesting professional and career perspectives. Finally, this year, we are seeking for suitable successors who proceed with the agenda as proposed, but go ahead with new visions, ideas and concepts, and who have the strength and persistence to put them into action.

AA: In the future we also keep on striving to give the younger schoolchildren a better understanding of engineering studies in general and of computer science in particular. For this purpose we are currently developing concepts and we hope to be able to start a pilot project soon.

It is a well-known fact that change starts with women. Christina, if women computer scientists ran the world, what extra dimension would they bring to it? Can you answer the question in a philosophical manner? I’m curious …
CP: Whether computer scientists – no matter if male or female – should rule the world, I cannot say. In my opinion this should primarily be humans, people that can be characterized and are driven by farsightedness, humanity and visions of a better world (which is not supposed to mean that this could not be a computer scientist). The point is, though, that computer science and its numerous applications and benefits are significantly shaping and revolutionizing our world: think about new communication means, (almost) unlimited data storage, the search and processing of inconceivably huge data sets, manifold applications and simulations in medicine, research, the world of finance etc. Since the implications of computer science and its advances have been – and still are – so comprehensible, I am convinced that all parts of the population should participate in this progress. This includes women in particular. Without over-simplification I would like to make the observation that women bring along good portion of pragmatism and determination and, at the same time, they often question the benefits – especially in computer science – more. The whole society can benefit from this.