Percentage of female professors in Leiden unchanged
Like last year, the percentage of female professors at Leiden University is 31.2 per cent. These are the results of the Women Professors Monitor 2023 published by the Dutch Network of Women Professors (LNVH). This puts Leiden University above the national average of 27.6 per cent.
Leiden University is one of five universities to have passed the 30 per cent mark for female professors. Compared with last year, the proportion of female professors rose by 0.9 percentage points. This is the slowest growth in eight years. According to the monitor, it will take until 2045 to achieve an equal ratio of male professors to female ones. This is four years later than the forecast last year.
Targets
The Dutch Universities set targets for the percentage of female professors in the period 2020-2025. Leiden University’s target for 2025 is 35 per cent. According to the projections, this target will not be achieved. The monitor shows that six of the 14 universities will not achieve their targets at the current rate.
‘Unfortunately, the increase in the percentage of female professors is plateauing’, said Jouke de Vries, Interim President of the Universities of the Netherlands. ‘We must work together to ensure we reach the 2025 targets. That is definitely possible. With the large increase in the percentage of female associate professors, there is a lot of female talent ready to move up.’
One possible explanation for the limited growth in the percentage of female professors is the pension age increase. This has meant that older, mostly male professors retire later. According to the LNVH, the outflow has now begun, however, and there is great replacement potential for women. The effects will become apparent in the coming years.
Ratio of women in other job categories
The proportion of women in the job category of associate professors in the Netherlands has seen rapid growth for the second year in a row. Compared to last year, the proportion increased by 1.4 percentage points. This proportion decreased at Leiden University, however, by 1.7 percentage points from last year. The proportion of female PhD candidates at Leiden University also decreased by a total of 0.5 percentage points. In contrast, the proportion of female assistant professors at our university saw an above-average increase of 2.6 percentage points. The proportion of women at Leiden University is above average in every job category.
Download the Women Professors Monitor 2023.