The National Network of Women Professors (LNVH) expresses surprise that other universities across the country have not adopted the successful Irène Curie Fellowship established at Eindhoven University of Technology.
The university conducted a positive evaluation of the program earlier this year. This week, Evangelia Demerouti, the program’s creator, shared with Studio040 her astonishment at the lack of nationwide interest in the initiative.
Lidwien Poorthuis, director of the National Network of Women Professors (LNVH), expressed her surprise in a conversation with Studio040. “We are very pleased with TU/e’s Irène Curie Fellowship and its achievements. We also awarded TU/e an LNVH medal, which they thoroughly deserve, as they have taken a bold step. It is truly commendable that the university continued with the programme despite public criticism. It now serves as a blueprint for the policies of other universities.”
Decline
Poorthuis also sees that the programme is not being directly emulated by other universities in the Netherlands. ‘Unfortunately not. That while it is necessary to keep the focus on the number of women in academia. Especially in the upper echelons, there are few women: less than 30 percent. And the growth rate is declining. We get a tendency to sit back, when in fact there is no reason to do so.’
‘Other universities, too, have adopted policies that should lead to more women in university staff,’ says Poorthuis. ‘But what is unique about TU/e is that they have really created a very concrete and full programme: hiring more women, actively approaching them but also offering them the environment they need to function well.’
Breakaway
‘What you want to see is a good and fair selection policy. If that is not there, you have to install a crowbar measure so that that culture is there. That is also the only way you can get a culture change done. Universities have been built over the centuries by almost exclusively men, you don’t change that overnight.’
Dark clouds
Despite the good results of the Irène Curie Fellowship, Poorthuis sees things looking bleak for the numbers of women at universities. ‘Very dark clouds are gathering over the university sector. We have to cut €1 billion due to government policies. Given that the growth in the number of women in the sector is already declining, I fear that we will be set back years to come.’
Source: Studio040
For Eindhoven News: Chaitali Sengupta.
