Women now account for 23% of the professors at Dutch universities, a marginal rise on 2018, according to new figures from monitoring group Landelijk Netwerk Vrouwelijke Hoogleraren.

But despite the increase, the Netherlands is still fourth from bottom in Europe when it comes to appointing female academics, the organisation says.

The figures show that women are losing out to men the higher up the academic ladder they progress.  Women account for 54% of all graduates from the Netherlands’ 13 universities but men account for 57% of PhD students, 58% of lecturers and 71% of senior lecturers.

There are wide differences between the universities – almost 30% of professors in Leiden, Maastricht and Nijmegen are female, compared with just 16% at Delft and Eindhoven, which are universities of technology. Bottom of the list was Erasmus University in Rotterdam, where just 14.5% of professorships are held by women.

‘If we keep on going at this rate, it will be 2042 before we reach parity,’ the organisation said.

Eindhoven

In June, Eindhoven University announced that for the next 18 months, all academic jobs will be open to female candidates only in an effort to improve the balance between men and women on the permanent staff.

If a vacancy fails to attract suitable candidates within six months, it will be opened up to men, and after 18 months the entire scheme will be revised, the university said.

The university expects to have some 150 positions to fill with the next few years. Female newcomers will also be given an extra starter package, including €100,000 which they can use for their own research and a special mentoring programme.