Glass Ceiling in the Netherlands a Myth

Glass Ceiling in the Netherlands
By Mary van der Boon

The Dutch news and opinion weekly Elsevier created an uproar this week by declaring in their cover story that the glass ceiling in the Netherlands is not caused by corporate culture, or male dominance, but rather by Dutch women's own unwillingness to pursue a career to the top, or even to work at all.
Elsevier, a popular business journal, prides itself on pursuing a path of skeptical research and going against the tide of popular opinion: 'edge without ideology'. Or, in this case, 'commercialism without conscience'.
It is not sufficient to report that 70% of Dutch women work part-time, or that they are paid 25% less than their male counterparts (known facts). No, Elsevier tells us 'women actually prefer NOT to work'. The solution? 'Instead of encouraging them, women need a good kick up the backside'.
The author greatly admires professional women from America, France, Denmark and Surinam. Dutch women are a different story: 'the Dutch woman doesn't like to work, and doesn't want a career. Temporarily, okay, but as soon as the children arrive she either works drastically less, or stops entirely. This decision is not temporary, as in other countries - when the children are older, Dutch women still don't work, or work less. They'd rather take painting lessons than work for their career'.
As Disraeli once said, 'there are lies, damned lies, & statistics'. The facts are inarguable: Dutch women lead the EU in percentage of women who work part-time. They are heavily dependent on the income of their partners, with the result that many single-parent families headed by women live on government assistance. The fastest-growing group entering the disability benefit (WAO) is young women. Even though women now constitute the majority of university graduates, the number of women working full-time in the Netherlands has not increased since the 70s (25%). The real question is therefore not what, but why?

Elsevier finds it irrational that a traditional, male-dominated culture or socio-economic factors are being blamed for the lack of women in academic, corporate or public life in the Netherlands (less than 5% of professors in Dutch academic institutions are women, and an increasing number of these are foreigners). No, even if adequate and affordable child care were available, women still wouldn't want to work, because 'making a career is difficult, and not always fun. It means hard work, disappointments, and fighting for your place. Men face this, too, but in contrast to men, Dutch women find a socially-acceptable escape route: motherhood.'
Not everyone agrees. Dr. James McAllister, philosopher of science and a professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at Universiteit Leiden for the past ten years, says that like most foreigners with a limited acquaintance with the Netherlands, he assumed before he moved here that Dutch society was women-friendly. His own experience has been very different, and he finds there is scant attention paid to the shockingly limited participation of women in science, research and academic life in the Netherlands. "Women receive too little opportunity here. I think that one has to recognize that the obstacles placed in the path of women in the Netherlands are very great, and sufficient to derail many careers in science and management. I would cite the tax system that prevailed until the late 1990s and the unavailability of child care as examples. Thus, it is not that women are unwilling: rather, women's creativity and enthusiasm are sapped by the social obstacles".
A very different picture is held by women and male managers in the Dutch corporate world on the reasons why women fail to reach top positions in Dutch business. In a 2001 survey conducted by the VNO-NCW (Dutch Employer's Association) of male CEOs and female subordinates, 96% of the women felt that a lack of support networks necessary to build crucial contacts was a significant obstacle to career development, as opposed to 70% of the top managers. 91% of the women interviewed felt that there was opposition by men in appointment of women to top functions, with only 58% of the top male managers in agreement. Despite this, Elsevier claims Dutch business is doing everything it can to promote women, but 'all this effort is in vain. Not because men are so unfriendly - the fault lies with the women themselves'.
Much is made by Elsevier of the fact that a recent survey showed that women wouldn't work more hours even if they could. This does not take into account that the same survey revealed Dutch men would also like to work fewer hours than they do now, reflecting a universal trend towards a 'work to live' orientation in the Netherlands, for both men and women.

The Elsevier article concludes that given the choice between hiring a man or woman around the age of 30 the employer would be crazy to take the woman. Chances are she will disappear within a few years, to have children, through a lack of ambition, or because of illness. It goes on to cite the fact that women take parental leave more often than men (but then, perhaps the author hadn't noticed women actually give birth to children), and prove their disloyalty by taking time off work if a child is sick. Men, it seems, seldom do so. The article further makes no mention of the 240,000 women business owners in the Netherlands. Apparently they are also 'weak, sick and squeamish'.
Elsevier has a solution: Dutch women have to learn that work isn't always fun, and that sacrifices are required. That they have to function in a professional, profit-driven environment, and not always be surrounded by nice people, is something women don't seem to understand as well as men do. No, says Elsevier, 'women have to learn how to work: this will never happen if they throw in the towel at the slightest disappointment. No, instead of sympathy women just need a good, swift kick'.
Or perhaps Elsevier just needs to learn that offering apologist arguments for discrimination, pandering to misogynist inclinations in society and promoting overt sexism is an unacceptable way to increase your circulation.

Mary van der Boon is Managing Director of global tmc international and contributing author to the International Handbook of Women and Small Business Entrepreneurship, and contributed this comment to expatica.