Review of lunch lecture ‘No more excuses: inclusive recruitment and equality in Dutch academia’
Last October was the ‘Month of diversity’. Therefore, on 1 October, NWO-I organised a lunch lecture entitled ‘No more excuses: inclusive selection and equity in Dutch academia.’ This online lecture was attended by colleagues from the NWO Institutes and NWO-I office. It dealt with the ongoing challenges and opportunities for recruitment in the Dutch academic sector, with a focus on gender equity. Speakers Lidwien Poorthuis (Dutch Network of Women Professors – Dutch acronym LNVH) and Janna Heynen-Behnke (Eindhoven University of Technology – Dutch acronym TU/e) shared their experiences about recruitment strategies and creating an inclusive science environment for women.
Gender equity in the academic world
Gender equity in the academic world is not merely a numerical objective but also a catalyst for innovation, equity and inclusion. In her lecture, Lidwien Poorthuis, director and senior policy adviser at LNVH, emphasised that achieving gender balance increases the diversity in thinking, which is vital for academic research and education. With more women in science, the academic world more adequately reflects the demography of the Netherlands, which, in turn, facilitates creativity and new perspectives in research. An academic workforce with greater gender diversity also improves decision-making and strengthens organisations, as a result of which they are better equipped to tackle global challenges.
Despite the increasing number of female students and graduates, Poorthuis showed that women remain underrepresented in academic leadership positions in the Netherlands. Furthermore, the country has a persistent wage gap between men and women. LNVH and the universities jointly set goals to achieve 33% female professors in 2025. At present, there is also a new initiative to appoint 200 additional female professors in the coming two years to achieve gender equality in 2036.
Irene Curie programme at TU/e groundbreaking measure for gender equity
Janna Heynen-Behnke is Learning & Development Specialist at TU/e. Both nationally and internationally, TU/e had one of the lowest percentages of female staff. Therefore, the university launched the Irene Curie programme as part of a broader recruitment policy in 2019. As just 22% of the faculty staff consisted of women, the university set ambitious goals: 25% female full professors, 30% female associate professors and 35% female assistant professors. The executive board recognised that these objectives would not be achieved without drastic measures and for this reason, decided to review the recruitment processes because earlier diversity initiatives made slow progress in delivering results.
For example, positions in which women were underrepresented were kept open for a period of 6 months. An extensive evaluation in 2023 revealed that the measure was a success, especially in increasing the representation of women at the level of assistant professors. By the end of the programme, the university had achieved a 50/50 ratio between the recruitment of men and women in various departments. During this process, 62% of new professors appointed in the previous 4 years were women. This success has also received extensive news coverage over the past months.
Internal change needed
Heynen-Behnke emphasised that the low representation of women in the academic world is not due to a lack of qualified female researchers, but to the need for institutions to change. Poorthuis added that if you are recruited because you are a woman, this points to the shortcomings of the selection and promotion procedures, and not of your own quality as a candidate. Creating an environment in which women feel valued and supported requires academic institutions to re-evaluate their internal practices – not just to recruit more women but also to retain them after they have gained their PhDs so that gender equity can be achieved at each level. Both Heynen-Behnke and Poorthuis emphasised the need to reconsider recruitment strategies in order to effectively tackle gender inequity in the academic world.
The success of the programme at TU/e demonstrates that ambitious policy can quickly achieve changes, but for these results to be maintained, continuous institutional efforts and structural changes are required. Gender equity cannot be achieved with just superficial measures; structural changes are needed.
More information
Would you like to know more about this theme? Then visit the LNVH website with publications related to the theme: List of publications for Lunch Lecture NWO Institutes | 1 October - LNVH. This year the NWO Institutes were included in the annual LNVH Monitor for the first time.
Would you like to know more about Diversity, Inclusion and Equity at NWO-I, and which activities are organised within this theme at our organisation? Then please take a look at the DIE page on the NWO-I website. You can also contact DIE advisor Judith Kreukels.
Text: Judith Kreukels
Newsletter Inside NWO-I, December 2024
You can find the archive of the newsletter Inside NWO-I on the NWO-I website.