Unequal distribution: only 38 percent of ministers in the new Cabinet are women

The number of men and women in the team of ministers and state secretaries who will soon take office is not equally distributed, as there are only eleven women but eighteen men in the Schoof Cabinet. This means that 38 percent of ministers are women, less than in the last two Cabinets under Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

The now outgoing Rutte IV cabinet had an almost equal gender distribution: 48 percent were women when it took office in the government team of his third Cabinet, which was 42 percent.

Only the first two Cabinets fared worse in this respect. In Rutte's first Cabinet, 19 percent were women, in the second Cabinet, it was 35 percent.

The final composition of the new Cabinet was not known until Friday afternoon. Until then, there was still a crisis meeting about the nomination of PVV member Marjolein Faber as Minister of Asylum and Migration. VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz had difficulty with this and called Faber "not uncontroversial." But after deliberation, she and the other party leaders agreed to this.

Faber replaces her party colleague Gidi Markuszower. He was excluded yesterday by his party leader Geert Wilders after the MP failed the AIVD screening. Faber has since also been screened, and there were no problems. The change has increased the proportion of female members of government from 34 to 38 percent.

On Saturday afternoon, it was announced that four PVV members will join the newly formed Cabinet. The next names on the electoral list are Chris Faddegon, Nico Uppelschoten, Robert Rep, and Folkert Thiadens.