Gender (in)equality

having more money and accumulating wealth is crucial

Are women lucky to have less money than men?

Money is hardly ever what my clients view as their main problem. Indeed, often, interwoven in their stories are signs that they don’t care for it that much. And why should they? ‘Money is the source of all evil,’ they say in English. In French ‘money is the sinew of war.’ In Dutch a person …

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Yet another set back for women? Please!

Gender stereotypes can kill a woman’s self-confidence, new research by Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Katherine Coffman shows. Oh no! Yet another reason why we can’t make it?! [Women] lack confidence in their ability to compete in fields that men are stereotypically believed to perform more strongly in, such as science, math, and technology. Women …

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Leadership against victimhood

Domestic violence has struck about 750,000 adults in the Netherlands at least once in the last five years. 65% of these victims are women. 250,000 women experienced violence more than once and for 100,000 of them, the violence is routine. Between 90,000 and 120,000 children younger than 17 are experiencing abuse as well. Above age …

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Women leaders, please don’t be nice!

Women in leading positions are often judged to be not nice. This is one reason why so few women want to be boss, I believe. Yet, one condition to achieve Sustainable Leadership for Women is indeed to stop being so nice. Women needing to be nice is why we’re practically absent where the decisions are taken, …

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More women leaders? Get real women to the top.

At a time when women outnumber men at university in most Western countries, I think it’s safe to say that lack of intelligence cannot be the reason why women still are lagging behind when it comes to occupying decision-making positions. Similarly, it’s been known for at least 30 years that more women at the top …

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#1 issue to solve: the gender confidence gap

As the efforts to reach gender parity grow, more and more ‘gaps’ come to the surface. There is the pay gap, the career gap, the healthy movement gap, the chores gap, and so on. Lately I’ve come across articles about the gender confidence gap, and how to tackle it. I’m adding mine. A recent piece …

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More women at the top boosts share prices

Recent research by Bank of America Merrill Lynch shows that employing more women at the top is excellent for share prices. All male boards will soon have to let more women in, not because they like to share power, but because this is what moves the money. Women now have more economic power than ever. …

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To be the perfect woman

Recently I read an interview with a business woman who said that the best thing she ever did for herself was to let go of perfectionism. She was right. Self-oriented perfectionism can be debilitating. As a recovering perfectionist, I know this well. Wikipedia describes the condition as ‘a personality trait characterised by a person’s striving …

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Photo by Simon Matzinger on Unsplash

Fatherhood lowers chances of finding job

That working women get punished for being mothers is not new. However, when researchers of the Universities of Gent and Leuven, Belgium, sent out 960 job applications with different profiles, they found that children are bad news for working fathers too. Male candidates with children were invited 18% less often for job interviews. According to Professor Stijn …

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Empowering Women Is the Best Way to Solve Climate Change 

It’s time to stop putting our heads in the sand. Global warming is happening fast, and it puts many of us -if not all- in danger. Many solutions are being discussed, and many have a hefty price tag. Educating girls seems the cheapest option, and a very effective one too, is the conclusion of Paul …

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