Emancipation minister Jet Bussemaker has launched a new website in her efforts to get more women into top jobs in the Netherlands.

The website ‘navigate to the top‘ gives details of top management jobs at the 200 biggest companies in the Netherlands and the dates when they may become vacant. The aim, the minister says, is to break through the ‘black box in which the old boys’ network shares out the jobs’.

The website will also state who is doing the job at the time to improve transparency. Bussemaker said it would provide ‘insight into changes that will take place over the next few years’ so that ‘women who aspire to senior positions will be able to gain an advantage on their way to the top’.

Database

Her ministry has previously set up a database of senior female executives to highlight the number of potential candidates for boardroom level functions. That initiative was criticised for providing unfair competition with the private sector because recruitment and selection agencies have similar lists.

The government’s target is to ensure 30% of supervisory and executive board members are female but the figure is currently around 10%. Bussemaker has since extended the deadline from 2016 to 2020.

Without serious effort, the introduction of quotas remains an option, Bussemaker said at the database launch. ‘I’m not in favour of [quotas] but I will not rule out using them. Time is running out.’