#NewMindset

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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My Dad’s old suitcase. Let go of it?

My Dad has been resisting moving into a care home for years. He couldn’t let go of the world he created, even if it was less and less comfortable to be in. Last summer he couldn’t look after himself anymore. We, his daughters, took the tough decision to overrule his judgment. My youngest sister moved …

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‘Nobody could have done it but a woman’ — Lessons about leadership from a president

‘The thing about leadership is that you have to be prepared to fail and start again,’ says Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. She is the living example of perseverance. She was jailed three times, had to flee the country and campaign more than once before becoming the first elected female head of state in Africa. For 12 …

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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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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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