GDK Portrait

The GDK aims to 1) create an inclusive environment for members of all genders, 2) appreciate diversity as a chance for enrichment among all students and staff; 3) ensure that all professional levels and students are equally represented.

The current role of the Gender and Diversity Commission (GDK) is to:

Recognize the potential and need for improvements in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) principles;
Support D-BAUG in implementing actions that promote gender, diversity, equity and inclusion;
Highlight examples of good practices at D-BAUG and ETH-wide;
Cooperate with the ETH Diversity Office.

To this effect, the GDK aims to promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) principles in the domains of:

Personnel hire and management
Working modes and models
Cooperation and exchange within the research and teaching environments
Transparent procedures and protocols.

The Gender & Diversity Commission in action

Activities and events

2023 GDK Spotlight Seminar Series (with special guests)
2023 GDK Spotlight Stories (focus on D-BAUG staff and students)
2023 Gender-neutral toilets in HIL
2022 GDK comics, based on D-BAUG 2021 survey responses
2022 Establishment of a mentoring programme for doctoral candidates
2022 Sponsorship of 500WS Zurich "external pageReally? What Now?" event for doctoral candidates
2021 Webinar “I do it my way” on career paths of five female engineers
2021 D-BAUG survey of staff and students
2018 Role models of D-BAUG portrayed in Annual Report
2017 Pilot mentoring and coaching programme for scientific assistants
Campaign for gender awareness: GDK flyer handed out in AVETH welcome bags
Sponsoring of yearly “BauIngenieurinnen Forum”

Reconciliation of studies/work and family

Working from home (in place before Covid-19)

The GDK is the outcome of a focused workshop which took place in 2014, in response to the ETH Executive Board’s Gender Action Plan (GAP), the goal of which was primarily to increase the number of women pursuing scientific careers.

As a result of the workshop, the following five domains of action were identified:

Personnel management
Transparency
Working modes and models
Teaching
Proposals and measures for appointments and permanent positions

DownloadA catalogue of 22 measures (PDF, 132 KB) was developed for these five domains, which the Departmental Conference approved in the autumn of 2015. A working group was formed to accelerate the implementation of proposed measures. By May 2018, it had successfully implemented 14 of the 22 measures. Five measures are still in progress and three have been postponed. The D-BAUG GAP report 2018 explains the aforementioned phases for the processing of proposals and measures, their implementation and long-term mainstreaming within the Department.

The GDK was established at D-BAUG in early 2019 and it began to consolidate and establish the measures with respect to Gender and Diversity promotion at the Department (Orders of Procedure, German version only).