Europe | Netherlands | Business

Top engineering university to open jobs exclusively to women

Job vacancies at one of Europe’s leading engineering universities will be open exclusively to female candidates for at least the next 18 months in order to overcome the institution’s “implicit gender bias”. The rector of the Eindhoven University of Technology, Frank Baaijens, said progress towards a better balance of men and women in academic roles had been stubbornly slow. The proportion of vacancies that will be open only to women will be adapted after 18 months of a five-year programme to reflect the success or otherwise of the scheme. About 150 jobs are expected to become

Europe | Netherlands | Technology

Netherlands uses female role models to encourage girls into IT industry

Source: Computer Weekly

The lack of women in the IT sector in the Netherlands is an urgent problem, with only 10% of the workforce female. The country compares badly with other countries worldwide despite new initiatives, as well as established organisations campaigning to encourage girls and women into IT. It’s remarkable there are so few women working in IT, as the beginning of automation was dominated by women. Many of the early electronic computers, such as Eniac in the US and the Arra in the Netherlands, were operated and programmed by women. VHTO is working with female professionals to provide childr

Europe | Netherlands | Arts

For Michaela DePrince, a Dream Comes True at the Dutch National Ballet

Source: The New York Times

Michaela DePrince was appearing here in the third act of Balanchine’s “Jewels” with the Dutch National Ballet on a recent evening. There were about a dozen ballerinas in bejeweled white tutus arrayed across the stage, and there she was all the way stage right in the front line. This 20-year-old American ballerina, who joined the Dutch National Ballet’s main company in August, is in some respects the equivalent of a chorus girl in a Broadway musical. But night after night, people show up just to see her dance. Ms. DePrince, who was an orphan in war-torn Sierra Leone and became a profe