Annual Meeting: Math for All!
November 2016
“Math for all!”, the third annual meeting of EWM-NL (the Dutch section of European Women in Mathematics), took place on November 30th 2016. The topic was the gender imbalance at Dutch mathematics departments. Frank den Hollander (Leiden) discussed the current numbers of female mathematicians, and the solutions proposed in the Deltaplan. The research on implicit biases was reviewed by Naomi Ellemers (Utrecht), and the EWM-NL mentor network was promoted by Lisanne Rens (CWI). Corina Brussaard (UvA/NIOZ) offered her personal view and advice on gender equality. The final speaker was Tomas Brage (Lund), who shared his perspective on gender balance and suggested many practical options for improvement.
Some of the suggested measures discussed during the meeting include:
- adding ‘bias observers’ to discussions of job search committees and research grant committees;
- advertising all job openings publicly;
- systematic gender training for persons in leadership positions;
- organizing events for women only, for example on the day before a conference or workshop;
- creating a prize for departments that take initiatives towards improving the gender balance;
- checking teaching materials for sexist portrayals of men and women;
- guaranteeing that the amount of time taken for parental leave is added to every temporary contract;
- getting rid of the short time frames during which researchers can apply for a Veni, as these deadlines put a lot of pressure on young researchers to perform at a time when they also typically want to start a family.
