More women in politics and managing positions

Increasing the percentage of women in politics and managing positions is unfortunately a topic that still needs attention. After striving many years for the emancipation of women, the Netherlands is, in comparison to other Western countries, lacking behind if we look at the representation of women in top positions in business life, politics, social and university boards. The level of education is not the problem; women perform better than men.

The Dutch Centre for Political Participation (IPP) aims to increase the participation of women in politics and management. The basic assumption is that proportional representation increases the quality of boards. Moreover, a society cannot afford to leave so much talent unused! Stimulating and facilitating female participation should be the basis of social organisations; IPP can offer support and is doing this already in some projects.

In 2010 there are local elections in the Netherlands. The coming few months IPP will develop and execute a regional pilot to get more women involved in local politics. The idea is to create a Ambassador's Network with 8-10 prominent women per province. The Ambassador formulates a few action points to increase the number of women in politics. The Network could, for example, help to investigate the selection process and give recommendations of how to be unprejudiced and open-minded whilst looking for new local councillors.

On 1 December IPP organised a workshop Board Seeks Woman on the Women Inc. Festival in Amsterdam. The aim of the speed date was to bring boards that are looking for women into contact with women that are looking for boards. Different top managers from trade unions, political, environmental and development organisations were present to answer questions from different women.

Visitors of the festival could ask the board members anything in 5 minutes. This method turned out to be very successful: there were queues of women waiting up to 40 minutes to speak to a manager or board member. In these queues there were already debates why you should or should not want to become board member. Afterwards most women and board members were very positive about the speed date. Board members were surprised about the amount of women that were interested in top positions. Visitors were very content about the possibility to speak one-on-one with an expert. Speed dating turned out to be a very successful tool to exchange relevant information in a short period. The IPP will definitely use it again for courses, workshops or meetings.

A third project the IPP has developed is the course Social Governing. This course is being held on the authority of local governments or boards to stimulate and to make citizens (especially women and immigrants) enthusiastic for board membership. The course raises the participants' awareness of their possibilities and competences and prepares them for a managing position. The course can also be used to improve the functioning of current board members.

For more information, please contact me on: g.bosdriesz@publiek-politiek.nl.

Gerda Bosdriesz, IPP (Dutch Centre for Political Participation)

Translation: Suzanne Jansen, IPP (Dutch Centre for Political Participation)