Science

More hours, but less salary for female professors

Female professors have a longer working week than their male colleagues, but are paid less. This is stated in the new Female Professors Monitor.

(Photo: Sam Rentmeester)

On average, professors work more than four days a week, plus an unknown number of overtime hours. But officially, the working week of female professors is slightly longer than that of men: about an hour and a half.

Their salary is a different story, according to the monitor presented Thursday 12 December by the National Network of Female Professors. Women are often classified lower than men. This may partly be due to their age, as female professors are usually younger than their male colleagues. Earlier research has shown that this is probably not the whole story, though.

Jump
Just like HOP showed in October, the makers of the monitor see that a leap has been made in the number of female professors. At TU Delft, 16.1 percent of professors were women in 2018, and 14.6 percent in 2017. There are now 685 female professors in the Netherlands, compared to 2,272 male professors (calculated in FTEs, i.e. full-time jobs). The forecasts have been adjusted accordingly: at this rate, proportional representation of men and women is more rapid. However, it would still take more than 20 years.

The jump in the number of professors is partly due to the so-called Westerdijk Talent impulse: a fund of five million euros to appoint one hundred female professors: 50 thousand euros per appointment. It remains to be seen exactly what the effect of this impulse will be, as the final settlement will not take place until 2020. One thing is clear: these women must not be included in the universities’ own targets. They are additional professors. The universities must meet their targets, otherwise they will have to pay back the money for these Westerdijk professors. 

HOP, Bas Belleman

HOP Hoger Onderwijs Persbureau

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