What needs to change to get more women into high-ranking scientific positions? This is a question TU/e is struggling to answer. One of the objectives of the Executive Board is to increase the number of women professors, associate professors and assistant professors. In order to engage in debate on this topic with employees and students, the Communication Expertise Center has compiled an event program. Naomi Ellemers, professor of organizational psychology at Utrecht University, is one of the speakers.

In preparation, professors Kitty Nijmeijer, Bert Meijer, Wijnand IJsselsteijn and others have been asked to look at the university 'through their daughter's eyes'. Films made on this topic will be screened on June 27. As it happens, these three individuals have no daughters, only 'scientific daughters', as Bert Meijer puts it. Short on daughters, but long on ideas, which will be discussed at the meeting.

In one of the short films, Meijer describes a very real difference between men and women concerning the co-authorship of scientific publications. “Now and again I see people in my office who think they should be added to the list of authors. With equal regularity I see people who want to be removed from the list. Those in the first category are almost always men; those in the second category are invariably women.”

Meijer thinks this reflects the pressure men feel to have a long list of publications to their name, while women, he believes, think it is more important that their names appear only on quality publications to which they have genuinely contributed. “If an assessment committee consists mainly of men, these reasons for inclusion go unnoticed,” says Associate Professor Patricia Dankers in explaining the hazards of this situation.

Wijnand IJsselsteijn points out how men and women use language differently. “Women describe themselves in terms like 'team player' and 'hardworking' while men use words like 'talented' and 'excellent'. And in our organization, dominated at the present time by men, the last-mentioned terms also appear in job vacancies and mission descriptions. TU/e aspires to be an excellent university. I have nothing against excellence, but think carefully about what it is you wish to excel at and how you come across.”

The meeting on June 27 is scheduled for 10.30 through 12.30 hrs in the Zwarte Doos on the TU/e campus. Rector Magnificus Frank Baaijens will make the opening speech, Naomi Ellemers will present her own research results, and immediately following will be the discussion with professors and students led by presenter Isolde Hallensleben. The following professors have committed to attending: Kitty Nijmeijer, Bert Blocken, Wijnand IJsselsteijn, Paul van den Hof, Eva Demerouti and Yvonne de Kort.