March 8, 2010...Time for change: More Women in Science

Monday, 08 March 2010 18:31

It does not ring a bell for most women in the Netherlands; however, today is March 8 – International Women's Day (IWD).

Many social, political and economic aspects have been approved for women since the first IWD around 1900. There is still space for improvement, however. In science, the number of female professors is still far below the number of their male colleagues. Although the number of female scientists worldwide increases, Dutch numbers are far below those of other European countries. But let’s look at it from the positive side: slowly, the percentage of female professors in the Netherlands increases during the last decade and many programs are being initiated in order to stimulate and motivate female scientists to remain within the academia.

One example is the Charter 'Talent to the Top', a program which will be initiated on March 10 and which aims to increase the number of women within the scientific organizations, but also to maintain these numbers later on and to motivate female scientists to continue their career towards the top positions within the academia.

Another example is the Rosalind Franklin fellowship at the University of Groningen. This fellowship, initiated in 2003, promotes the participation of outstanding female scientists within the field of Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences by offering them a prestigious fellowship program. During the initial phase of their scientific career, female scientists are just as competent and ambitious as their male collegues.

So what is causing the discrepancy between male and female scientists in continuing their scientific career? Are the current programs intended for female scientists enough to motivate them to continue their career towards the professorship and other top positions at the universities? What else should be done in order to increase the motivation among female scientists to stay and further develop within the academia?