Strong Self-Esteem

Stereotypical Barbie is dead, long live the stereotype!

When I put a few pages about Barbie in my latest book – We-mind vs Me-mind, published in July – I wanted to illustrate how what we’ve learned to value in ourselves and others is making a lot of people deeply unhappy and perpetuates the very situation we want to change. Unfortunately, the latest Barbie […]

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Let’s stop beating ourselves up! What the latest UN report on gender bias really shows

It sounds shocking: 90 percent of the world population, including women, is biased against women, according to the latest UN Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI). But this representation of the facts is profoundly skewed. Yes, there is a lot of room for improvement. But there is no reason to despair. And the solution is obvious:

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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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what gives life meaning

What gives life meaning? Find your Ultimate Why

Springtime. Stormy skies and sunshine. Sweet scenting flowers everywhere. Life is bursting from the earth. It makes me feel so alive, but exactly in this season we lost a dear member of my husband’s family. My husband and I had the privilege to be present at his deathbed. We were holding his hand while his

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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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