EPFL Alumni Women’s Club: identifying inequalities and providing solutions

Since 2017, EPFL Alumni has been hosting a conference each year on International Women's Day. However, the issues related to the careers of women from the School cannot be confined to just one day a year. This is the entire purpose of the EPFL Alumni Women's Club: to activate support among alumnae, address issues, and offer solutions. Lola Saugy, the president of the Club, reflects on the lessons from the last conference and the challenges that lie ahead for the future.

"Last March 8, on the occasion of International Women's Day, the EPFL Alumni Women's Club organized a roundtable on the theme of inequalities in the workplace. These inequalities are numerous: they concern wage disparities, unconscious biases, differences in work rates or maternity/paternity leave, and the difficulty for women to access leadership positions - the notorious glass ceiling. This list is far from exhaustive!

To find solutions, it is first essential to better understand and quantify these inequalities. This is why EPFL Alumni conducted a survey among female graduates of the School. The three key points that emerged concern work rates, "top management" positions, and wage gaps.

46% of women respondents work full-time after their first child, compared to 86% of men

The work rate of women decreases significantly from the age of 32, while this reduction is almost non-existent among men. This critical period in women's careers directly coincides with the arrival of children. 84% of women who responded to the survey work full-time when they do not have children, a figure close to that of men (90%). It drops dramatically with the arrival of the first child, as only 46% of women continue to work full-time, while the situation for men changes little or not at all (86%). This reduction obviously impacts career opportunities for women, their salary, and their retirement. To reduce this inequality, supporting women is not enough. A collective change in mindset is necessary: from men, within couples, companies, and society at large.

Significant inequalities in "top management" positions and salaries

28% of men hold senior management positions, compared to only 11% of women. The number of women from the School continues to increase, and their average age is significantly lower than that of men, which can partly explain the gap, which may narrow in the coming years. However, this age difference does not explain everything, and the notorious glass ceiling must be broken to achieve real equality.

Finally, concerning wage disparities, data from the Federal Statistical Office for individuals with higher education in Switzerland (including EPFL) highlight a clear difference between women and men, around 30%. The same observation applies specifically to EPFL, as the sections with the most women are also those with the lowest salaries. Again, the age difference between female and male EPFL graduates can partly explain this, but not entirely. Other causes are undoubtedly at work: which ones?

What solutions and on what scale?

Armed with these findings, we, as members of the EPFL Alumni Women's Club, wish to offer solutions to achieve greater equality. On March 8, 2024, together with the panelists of the roundtable, Anita Maric Fasel (SIE'08), Francesca Gambazzi (SIE'08), Matthieu Wilhelm (MA'13), and Adrienne Hababou (Lawyer), we developed a necessarily non-exhaustive list of elements to be implemented at the individual level, within companies and organizations, and finally at the government level.

Some ideas for solutions at the individual level:

• Openly discuss inequalities and seek solutions with those concerned
• Negotiate your salary, do not undervalue yourself, have confidence
• Open discussions with your partner regarding each other's work rates
• Have a partner who shares all responsibilities (mental load, household, children) with a positive attitude
• Identify mentors for advice and/or promotion
• Be interested in gender equality topics, educate yourself, and participate in support and assistance communities such as the EPFL Alumni Women's Club

Proposals for systemic solutions:

• Establish long-term parental leave with a common period for both parents, followed by an individual period for each parent
• Implement longer and mandatory paternity leave, with a period exclusively for fathers
• Highlight the roles of female executives
• Facilitate "job sharing" in management positions
• Facilitate access to part-time work for men
• End salary taboos, offer more transparency regarding pay scales
• Implement mandatory pay equity with penalties for non-compliance. Currently, the law only provides incentives
• Facilitate flexible working hours and working remotely: the company must trust its employees
• Improve access to childcare and after-school care solutions, in terms of both the number of places and financial support
• Implement education programs on inequalities for governments, companies, and organizations, and more broadly for society
• Value unpaid work (children/household)
• Ensure meeting schedules allow everyone to participate

In conclusion, it is clear that inequalities heavily rely on unconscious biases and a system of double standards. Parenthood also has a predominant impact on women's careers, while it only marginally affects men's careers.

Reducing work rates, dedicating oneself to family, home, and personal interests are all extremely commendable goals and are not to be questioned here. However, it is essential for us to generate awareness: an ambitious woman wanting to pursue a career, whether or not she wants to start a family, faces multiple obstacles today, which is not the case for men in the vast majority of cases.

If you wish to respond to this article or continue the discussion, do not hesitate to join the EPFL Alumni Women's Club or contact us!

Lola Saugy
President of the EPFL Alumni Women's Club