Milestone: almost 30 per cent of professors in the Netherlands are women

The figures come from the latest Female Professors Monitor, published by the National Network of Female Professors (Dutch acronym: LNVH). The yearly publication lists the differences between men and women in Dutch academia. 

The authors stress that thirty percent is a symbolic threshold, marking that women are no longer an exception at the top of academia. Together, they form a critical mass for change.

Symbolic threshold almost reached
However, that milestone has not yet been fully reached. The latest figures (as of 31 December 2024) indicate that 29.9 per cent of professors in the Netherlands were women. The figures were also converted to full-time positions (FTE). In terms of individuals, it is a few tenths less. "We have chosen to consider that the 30 per cent threshold has been reached," the authors write nonetheless.

The proportion of female professors increased at all universities in the Netherlands except TU Delft, where it fell from 18.9 to 18.6 per cent. Delft is also the only university with less than 20 per cent female professors.

A total of six universities remain below the 30 per cent mark. Apart from Delft, these are VU Amsterdam, Wageningen University, Erasmus University Rotterdam and the technical universities of Eindhoven and Twente.

The remaining universities are above this threshold, with the Open University alone at the top. This small institution, located in Limburg, specialises in distance learning. 42.8 per cent of its professors are women.

In Utrecht, 33.6 per cent of professors were women at the end of 2024. A year earlier, that figure was 31.9 per cent.

In terms of FTEs, Utrecht University had the most professors of all universities at the end of 2024: 342.8. In terms of individuals, that is 410. According to the monitor, eight female professors were hired last year, and the number of male professors decreased by three.

LNVH believes that UU is on track to achieve its own target of having women occupy 35 per cent of professor positions by 2025. Based on last year's growth, the percentage is expected to reach 35.3 per cent this year.

© HOP. The proportion of women occupying professor positions in Dutch universities. Figures are in FTE and exclude the health sector.

The proportion of women occupying other senior positions, not just professorships, has also increased. Of the 41 members of executive boards, 21 are women, meaning that women constitute the majority of university administrators. At Utrecht University, the Executive Board has consisted of two male members and one female member for several years.

In addition, 36 per cent of faculty deans are women, and the same applies to directors of research institutes. At educational institutions, 47 per cent of directors are women.

Other countries
Compared to other European countries, the Netherlands is certainly not leading the way. In some countries, the situation is worse for women, such as Germany and Belgium, where the percentage of female professors in 2022 was below 25 per cent. But there are also countries where women are more likely to reach the top of academia, such as Romania, where over fifty percent of professors are women.

Vrouwelijke hoogleraren in EU-landen (2022)

KNAW and NWO
In this monitor, LNVH also examines the male-female ratios at the institutes of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and the Dutch Research Council (NWO). However, researchers working at these two institutions are not referred to as “professors”.

23.8 per cent of NWO employees in the comparable salary scales are women. According to the monitor, these NWO institutes focus primarily on science and technology. This percentage is slightly higher than the sector average. At the KNAW institutes, 28 per cent of positions in that salary scale are held by women.

Commenting on whether things are moving in the right direction for women in science, LNVH warns against complacency. “Growth is still modest and unevenly distributed across institutions and disciplines,” the monitor states. It could easily take twenty years before there are as many female professors as male professors in the Netherlands.