Posted on Thursday, April 06, 2006 3:39 AM
I didn't plan to do another post on the subject of women and careers, but reading this
small article made me realise that I had left out one thing from my (already incomplete)
discussion: positive discrimination or affirmative action.
Only a shocking 10% of Dutch professors are female, and while the European norm is 25%, the Dutch government aims for 15% in 2010. According to research by Prof Janka Stoker of the
University of Groningen, this lack of women in academic top jobs has nothing to do with low self-confidence or ambition. Additionally, she says that women value their private life and children less compared to their male colleagues. OK, but if this is true, then why do so many women work only part time as soon as they have a family?
Her proposed solution is to have some selected positions in academia become available only for women. I strongly disagree with that plan. First of all, it is probably illegal. Also, these would be token jobs, not only to the women who got them, but also - or especially - to their colleagues/male competitors. In their eyes, however qualified these women would be for the job, that would ultimately not be the reason they were appointed.
I still think facilitating the combination of family and career is the answer here.