Recommendations

Planning careers

• Convince the University community of the importance of equality within the institution. This message should be communicated by everybody.
• Remind people that the underrepresentation of women in certain posts justifies the rule of preference. It is a simple yet misunderstood fact.
• Explain that identical situations should be treated identically but that different situations should be treated differently.
• Properly monitor and plan careers to avoid, for example, women staying in intermediary positions longer than men.
• Be aware of the importance of the move from postdoc to assistant professor for women.
• Make sure that the few women aren’t burdened with panels, especially ones that are time-consuming and not useful for their career development.

Action during the procedure

• Introduce the delegation member and explain the delegation’s role during the first meeting of each appointment panel.
• Be aware of how male and female applications are still assessed differently even nowadays, especially when two CVs are equal.
• Draw attention to the fact that only looking at the list of publications can indirectly discriminate against women.
• Consider more generally what a person will bring to the students, research groups, their future faculty, the University and – if relevant – their patients.
• Evaluate applications in a more general way. Look for the candidates who want to get involved on behalf of their faculties.
• Rethink excellence – it is a criterion that is often abstract and poorly defined.
• Reconsider the notion of excellence and also the way of evaluating it, for all positions.

Support female researchers

• Prepare and encourage female researchers very early on, so that they do not fail for reasons that have nothing to do with their intellectual capacity.
• Highlight excellent applications by women.
• Encourage a strategic view of careers.
• Continue and promote mentoring programmes and other specific support.
• Teach female researchers how to deal with competition and find their place in the academic world.
• Make it possible to reconcile home and work life, and look at part-time options for men as well.
• Support equal parenting and sharing family tasks.
• Encourage men to participate in family life – it is said that the key decision in a woman’s academic career is her partner.

Pursue a more proactive policy

• Train panel chairs and other members: improve their knowledge of HR, of how the University works and of equality.
• Set numerical targets for full professors, or implement temporary quotas.
• Create more assistant professor positions.
• Make it possible to appoint young female candidates to assistant professor positions by invitation.
  • Use tenure-track assistant professor positions to facilitate integration and success.
  • Follow the work of planning committees and committees charged with evaluating options for professorial succession, which should support assistant professors; monitor promotions.
    • Actively find, approach and hire high-level female researchers by invitation.
    • Make a real effort to recruit young people via tenure tracks.
    • Find out the number of female applicants at the beginning and bring into line data collection and entry across faculties.
    • Increase the visibility of the issue of dual careers, because partners who cannot really move – and children – can slow down female researchers’ careers.
    • Consider bonus points for CVs to make up for having fewer publications.