It has been more than five years since TU/e started Irène Curie Fellowship: a program that would drastically increase the number of female scientists in the Eindhoven university’s workforce. Initiator Evangelia Demerouti received a lot of criticism and looks back: “Women need a nudge in the back”.
The percentage of female academic staff has increased in recent years from 22 per cent to 29 per cent at the university. 50 per cent of the staff hired were women, while previously this was only 30 per cent.
Evangelia Demerouti, professor at TU/e, initiated the program. “We were lagging far behind in terms of the number of women in the academic ranks. We had already taken measures to improve that. For example, emphasising in job advertisements that we considered diversity important. But it all yielded very little, it was clear that something had to change”.
“Mainly men responded to vacancies at TU/e. It is a technical university with mainly men and therefore it is mainly men who obtain the diplomas and who therefore continue in the academic world”, Demerouti says.
Tough measure
Demerouti decided that tough measures were needed to turn the tide. But TU/e was not thanked for this. A storm of criticism flared up because the policy was said to be discriminatory. Demerouti was shocked by the commotion that arose.
“We were heavily criticised in the media. We analysed the Twitter data from that period and it also showed that public opinion was incredibly negative. We also had to talk to the then Minister of Education Ingrid van Engelshoven. She had to answer parliamentary questions about why this policy could be implemented. The answer was that organisations themselves are allowed to make that decision”.
Human rights
But there was not only a commotion in the social debate. A number of people went to the College voor de Rechten van de Mens* (college for human rights), which made a negative statement.
“That was a huge disappointment”, Demerouti recalls. “But we did receive instructions on what the policy could look like in a new version. The College for Human Rights also explained that they could not decide otherwise because of European rights. Those European rights are old-fashioned, but they had to adhere to them.”
The ruling of the College for Human Rights meant that the policy had to be adjusted. Not all vacancies were allowed to be opened exclusively to women for the first six months, only vacancies in departments where there were too few women.
Other things
Demerouti actively got to work on it. Women were actively approached by the TU/e to apply for certain positions. “Women need different things than men”, Demerouti says. “They need a group to belong to, that gives support. They need a push in the back, someone who tells them that they can do it. I see that with female students too. They can do a lot, but they don’t believe in it themselves. Men have that self-confidence characteristic much more, even though they are not necessarily better than women”.
“Women are also a bit more social, they need a social context, encouragement. Colleagues with whom they can spar, with whom they can let off steam. And emotional support: ‘I’m having a hard time today’, ‘I had that too, I had a similar situation’. Sharing experiences is something that women often appreciate. Men don’t always, their conditioning is that they have to be strong and be able to do everything. Doubts or annoyances, you don’t share those kinds of things as quickly as a man. While they are very healthy reactions for people”.
Discussion
The commotion that arose also caused the discussion about Irène Curie Fellowship to flare up at the university itself. And that had positive consequences, Demerouti says.
“We started asking ourselves together: ‘How do we actually do that here?’ ‘Why don’t women come to work here?’ ‘Why don’t we think women are good enough?’ ‘Why don’t we appoint women to higher positions?’ Those kinds of discussions arose, and that leads to a culture change, so that we start acting differently”.
Rector
The successor to TU/e rector Frank Baaijens is also a woman. “I was not involved in the selection process myself, but I can imagine that they are related. Appointing a female rector (Sylvia Lenaerts, ed.) also makes a positive contribution to us as a university. In the past, there were already female members of the board, but now the rector is a woman, the academic boss of the university, that is very good news”.
“I do see that a female rector is more approachable, everyone addresses her by her first name. The rector also has an eye for these kinds of things, the cultural change. In the beginning she also stated that it is important for her to act in a value-driven manner. We also have a process behind us to determine those values: what do we stand for here? How can we ensure that we also act in this way, those are positive developments that ensure a better workplace”.
Work pressure
A part of that is reducing the work pressure, which at TU/e, like at many other universities, is very high. “What we see is that when there are more teaching tasks, women are more inclined to take over those tasks. They have a higher teaching load than men. I don’t know why that is, but in principle women help to reduce the work pressure. They take on tasks of their own accord”.
Despite the fact that the evaluation of Irène Curie Fellowship after five years is undeniably positive, the program has not yet been followed by other universities. Demerouti has also noticed it. “We have shown how you can successfully attract more women to your university. I find it remarkable that no one is copying that”.
For more information : Irène Curie Fellowship – TU/e.nl
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Bob
*College voor de Rechten van de Mens (college for human rights) is the Dutch national institute for human rights and exists since 1993. The College aims to protect human rights in the Netherlands, including the right to equal treatment, raise awareness of these rights and promote compliance with these rights. Their lawful duties include: research, report, advise, cooperation and stimulation of the human rights acts of the European Council and the United Nations.
