Few new women hired as univ. professors; significant wage gap holds

The glass ceiling for women in Dutch universities remains firmly in place, with the percentage of female professors hardly increasing, according to the national network of female professors LNVH in their annual monitor. There is also still a significant wage gap between female professors and their male colleagues, Het Parool reports.

Currently only 18 percent of professors in the Netherlands are female, up from 16.9 percent last year. In Amsterdam, the percentage is only slightly higher - 21.4 percent at the university of Amsterdam and 19.6 percent at the Vrije Universiteit. According to LNVH, if the increase continues at this rate, there will only be an equal distribution between male and female professors in the year 2054.

Female scientists at Dutch universities also face lower salaries than their male colleagues. The monitor already noticed that wage gap in 2012 and 2015, and it remains unchanged. According to the monitor, female scientists annually miss out on millions of euros. And women scientists are also routinely placed in lower job levels.

When it comes to academic administrative positions, women are doing somewhat better in the Netherlands. Both in Dutch universities' Executive Councils and Supervisory Boards, the proportion of women is around 30 percent. The percentage of women on the boards of university medical centers increased from 14 to 23 percent. On the UMC's supervisory boards, the percentage women remained around 37 percent.