Photo Guy Ackermans At the end of last year, the national percentage of female professors was 28.7 per cent, up 1.1 per cent from the previous year. At WUR, the share of female professors was slightly lower at 26.6 per cent, but the relative increase was above average. This is revealed in the new National Monitor Female Professors (Dutch acronym LNVH) that was published Monday.
The total number of female professors in the Netherlands exceeded one thousand for the very first time. At the end of 2023, there were 3,699 professors in the Netherlands, of whom 2649 were male and 1048 were female. Two persons identify as “other”. Combined, they represent 3,194.6 FTE (full-time equivalent), 86.3 FTE more than at the end of 2022. Females accounted for 59.5 per cent of this increase, while males accounted for 26.8 per cent.
The Monitor’s* calculations indicate that the share of females among all professors was 28.7 per cent at the end of 2023, an increase of 1.1 per cent. In the same period, the share of female professors at WUR was 26.6 per cent. The updated Wageningen list of professors shows that WUR is now approaching the national average with 50 females (28.4 per cent) among the total of 176 professors. That brings Wageningen’s 30 per cent goal in 2025 within reach.
Grey matter
An equal male-to-female ratio is still a long way away, and not just at WUR. According to the Monitor, if the increase continues at its current speed, it will take until 2041 for the number of female professors in the Netherlands to match the number of males. There appears to be an increased outflow of what the monitor calls the ‘grey matter’, male professors of sixty and above. That may enable the share of female professors to increase more rapidly. There is ample potential, according to data: 1143 female associate professors stand ready to succeed the 881 male professors of over 60.
Special professors
The Monitor bases its calculations on the number of chairholders and personal professors, excluding professors by special appointment and extraordinary professors. It does, however, monitor developments within this group. The Monitor reports that 600 professors in this group were affiliated with a Dutch university, of which 203 were women, equalling 33.8 per cent. This is the first time this percentage exceeds 30. WUR cannot compete yet, with only 11 out of the 48 extraordinary professors being women, some 23 per cent.
The latest Monitor also contains data and analyses on the share of women in lower job categories and to what degree this pipeline “leaks”, a phenomenon recently discussed by WUR president Sjoukje Heimovaara in Resource. Moreover, the Monitor reports on what nationality (Dutch or international) professors are. The Monitor is available on lnvh.nl.
* The data from the Monitor and the regular inventory conducted Resource do not share the same points of departure and can, therefore, not be compared. In addition to different reference dates, the Monitor uses FTEs, while Resource considers the number of individuals. The Monitor defines professors as persons in the UNL professors’ pay scales 1 and 2, while Resource uses WUR’s public list of professors.
