Women in Physics in the Netherlands - FOM

The visibility of women and the awareness of a healthy gender balance in physics in the Netherlands have clearly improved over the last years. Initiatives to promote women and their possibilities to pursue a career in physics are plentiful and commendable. Nevertheless, the numbers do not yet show the desired impact of all these initiatives. Although student numbers have increased, the percentage of female first-year student remains at approximately 13 percent of the total students in physics. Similarly, the relative numbers of female PhD candidates and postdocs have been stable over the last years at (both) approximately 20 to 25 percent. Despite the number of women obtaining a PhD in physics and continuing a scientific career as postdoc, the presence of women further up on the scientific ladder in physics remains strikingly low. Especially after PhD and postdoc, there is a big 'drop-out' of women from science. For example within FOM, the Dutch Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter, the percentage of women in positions beyond postdoc is currently 9 percent, where it was 7 percent in 2010 but 11 percent in-between. We will here focus on the current status, ambitions, and initiatives in the Netherlands to promote women, and especially to keep them, in physics.

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