Last year and the year before, we reported record-low growth rates in the share of women professors. The meager increases of 1.0 percentage point in 2021 and 0.9 percentage point in 2022 gave little cause for optimism. We sounded the alarm bells.
This year, we observe a slightly more positive development. Growth has marginally picked up.
With an increase of 1.1 percentage points, the share of women professors stands at 28.7% as
of the end of 2023. Encouraging trends are also visible in lower academic ranks, particularly
among associate professors. Combined with the significant outflow of male professors in the
highest age category, which now appears to be materializing, this provides hope for the near
future. This Monitor highlights that the replacement potential of women associate professors
for retiring male professors now exceeds 100%. It is now up to institutions to capitalize on
this potential and implement robust promotion policies to ensure visible and structural
changes in both representation and culture.
However, there is still room for improvement. This Monitor also reveals that, so far, the
increases in the percentage of women professors at universities remain minimal. At this rate,
the collective target of 31.2% women professors by 2025 is unlikely to be achieved. Local
initiatives and targeted policies are urgently needed. Despite claims that ‘women are now
adequately represented in academia’, the figures tell a different story. We invite you to explore this Monitor with us.
Women’s representation diminishes sharply with each successive academic rank, despite slight overall increases in 2023 across all categories, from students to professors. Women make up slightly more than half of the student body (51.7%) and graduates (54.6%), but their representation drops in subsequent career stages. Among PhD candidates, the share of women is 45.7%. This increases modestly to 46.9% among assistant professors but then falls significantly: 35.4% of associate professors and just 28.7% of professors are women.
Thirteen out of the fourteen universities saw an increase in the share of women professors between the end of 2022 and the end of 2023. The only exception was Erasmus University Rotterdam, where the percentage of female professors decreased by 0.2 percentage points. Growth rates varied significantly between institutions, from a marginal increase of 0.1 percentage points at Maastricht University to a relatively strong rise of 2.1 percentage points at Tilburg University.
Despite these gains, overall progress remains moderate, with no standout performers.
Notable changes are seen in the university rankings based on women professor representation.
Radboud University Nijmegen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and Erasmus University Rotterdam
have dropped in the rankings. By the end of 2023, seven universities had surpassed the 30%
mark, up from five in 2022. For the first time in the Monitor’s history, Tilburg University and the University of Amsterdam crossed the 30% milestone 
.
The Open University remains the frontrunner, with 42.6% women professors as of the end of 2023
- a 1.7 percentage-point increase compared to the previous year. Maastricht University (36.1%)
and Leiden University (32%) complete the top three. At the other end of the spectrum, Delft
University of Technology remains in last place, despite increasing from 18.1% in 2022 to 18.9% in 2023.
In early 2020, the LNVH requested universities to set targets for women professorship for the 2020–2025 period. All fourteen universities responded by defining new ambitions. If these targets are met, by 2025 no university will have less than 25% women professors, and with an average of 31.2%, one in three professors will be women. Achieving these targets would surpass the critical mass threshold of 30%. The good news is that four universities have already achieved their targets . However, this Monitor shows that many institutions will need to intensify their efforts, as eight of the fourteen universities are not on track to meet their goals at the current pace.
At the current growth rate, gender parity among professors will only be achieved by the end of 2041. If we base projections on the growth rates of the past three years, this milestone will not be reached until 2044.
A striking finding in this year’s Monitor is the significant outflow of male professors aged 60 and older. This long-anticipated shift now seems to be underway. Together with the robust pool of women associate professors, this development offers considerable promise. Institutions must seize this opportunity by fostering a workplace culture that attracts and retains female talent.
Without making a distinction based on scientific fields, more than 100% (=105,3%) of the
expected outflow of professors can be replaced by women associate professors. This means that
the replacement potential has increased by 7.9 percentage points in one year.
This is just a snapshot of the data in the Monitor. Explore the full report for insights into the Glass Ceiling Index, gender differences in age, contract size, permanent vs. temporary positions, salary scales, academic disciplines, academic management, university medical centers, and much more.
This year, we provide new insights into the gender distribution within NWO and KNAW institutes. By expanding our scope, we can present an even more detailed picture of the academic sector. Additionally, we have a section on the composition of academic staff by origin. For the third consecutive year, the Monitor includes data on the gender distribution among international academic staff, offering relevant insights for targeted gender equality policies.
Once again in this Monitor, there is data related to the UNL WOPI variable 'Gender', specifically the value 'Other'. Although this label leaves much to be desired - the Dutch Network of Women Professors advocates for a renaming - it does open the door to moving away from conventional binary data registration and representation. More on this in the Monitor itself.
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LNVH also publishes a full English version of the Monitor. This version is currently being developed and will be available by early 2024 at the latest.
monitor 2024 (NL)
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The Dutch Network of Women Professors (LNVH) is a center of expertise in gender diversity and a lobby and network organization of over 1600 women associate and full professors. LNVH aims to promote equal representation of women in academia, works towards the betterment of the position of women of all backgrounds and pushes for an inclusive and safe academic community. To this extent, the LNVH publishes a yearly Women Professors Monitor. The Monitor offers insight into the current ratio of women to men in academia and an overview of the current percentages of male and female professors and in management positions at Dutch academic organizations, university medical centers and other academic organizations. The Monitor forms the foundation for policy measures on gender diversity. It incites action and gives insight into where the obstacles are in the still inadequate flow of women to the higher echelons of academia.
