Campus

A little nudge towards breaking the glass ceiling

On June 4, 2015, TU Delft alumni Tessa Florence Duste was awarded the €9,000 Marina van Damme (MvD) grant. The MvD grant is the only one under the aegis of the Delft University Fund that is open only to female engineers.

As part of the selection process, engineers have to make a pitch about their projects or companies and explain what they would do with the grant money.

Duste, who studied Industrial Design Engineering at TU Delft, spoke about her company Rooflife and her aim to ensure that urban areas have a green cover too. “In order to progress in a male-dominated field, it is important for me to know all about roofing techniques and to understand all the possibilities in order to keep on innovating,” she said, adding that she plans to invest the award money in taking important courses. The issue of women-only grants and scholarships is something Duste says she has thought about at length. “For me personally, it was an inspiration. I think such platforms also create competition among women, which is very important. They also give us the motivation to reach out for more, rather than get stuck in the rut,” she said.

A need for more of such platforms is evident from the growing number of applicants for the MvD grant. “Marina Van Damme (a TU Delft alumni herself) wanted to increase the number of women in higher positions, as the balance between male/female is still uneven. The grant typically receives 10-15 applications, for the first time this year we received 60 applications,” said Jeroen den Tex, the director of the Delft University Fund. “I would certainly hope that more parties will be interested and are inspired by what the Marina van Damme scholarship is making possible for young female engineers. This year we had one head grant and four runners up prizes. I am sure we can make this bigger. This would be good news for all female engineering students as well as the TU Delft,” he added.

Technology Fellowship
Another initiative at TU Delft aimed at redressing this imbalance is the Delft Technology Fellowship. The fellowship offers key tenure-track positions to female scientists. Started in 2012, it is available every two years and 10 women are chosen. In 2014, Delta reported that initiatives such as these have made a small but significant impact. In 2008, of those earning the top salary scale at the university, only 7% were women. In 2013, the number had gone up to 10% and to 15% in the sub-top salary scale.

Wioletta Ruszel, assistant professor of Applied Probability, was one of Delft Technology Fellows in 2014. Ruszel was also a speaker at the recently held TEDxDelft Women. “Such initiatives are very important right now. They will give women a push until the system stabilises itself. They also help create positive role models and show young girls interested in science that we’re not freaks like TV portrays us, we are normal and can have it all,” she said.

Editor Redactie

Do you have a question or comment about this article?

delta@tudelft.nl

Comments are closed.