Well, there they were, on the platform last Monday. For the first time, the Dutch cabinet has as many men as women. A historic moment, with many advantages.
Because you get better government with a more equal distribution of women and men, as international research shows. You also get better male candidates because of the increased competition among men.
Furthermore, countries that reduce inequality between women and men richer, higher educated and healthier, according to studies. Even Hans Wiegel gave in his column The Telegraph his blessing to so many women in the cabinet. “It doesn’t matter to me: it’s about quality.” In short: the whole world will benefit – new leadership and all that.
But let’s keep an eye on the ball for a while, folks. Because no matter how beautiful it all seems, I hold my heart for the Netherlands. Because look at all the objections of all those women in power! I have listed them briefly.
1 First of all, it is very difficult to find women for administrative positions. Because women must have proven abilities to fulfill them. This does not apply to men.
Halbe Zijlstra, Stef Blok, Hugo de Jonge, Sander Dekker; open a can of men at random and people almost always find them suitable. Women, on the other hand, should always be under a magnifying glass – whether they have the relevant work experience. As a result, it always becomes an endless quest. Rather choose men and you will be ready much faster. Why do you think that formation took so long?
Precisely.
2 Who takes care of the children? That question was rightly asked when Belgium got its first female prime minister, but of course it also applies to the children of all those Dutch politicians: who will collect them from school, who will change their diapers?! Everyone knows that men are not suited for that. Don’t leave those poor little ones to their fate!
3 The more women in the cabinet, the more you should ignore. It used to be easy: when a woman talked in the cabinet, you ignored her. At least that’s how it went in Rutte III, that’s how it came the NOS on the track last year, and so it is in the rest of the world, according to scientific research. Women are more difficult to speak than men, and if they do speak, they have less opportunity to talk.
So if even more women come, the male ministers will soon spend more time cutting off than making decisions. Not desirable.
4 Men become less aggressive when more women sit at the table, according to research. Do we want that? Do we want lap dogs in the new cabinet? Yelling and machismo takes us so much further.
5 It’s not what we’re used to. A female finance minister, “the entire socio-economic triangle” that “falls right into the hands of women”, “and their first point of contact in the business world (VNO NCW) was already a same-sex” (oh god no!) as the FD wrote – any idea how much more prejudice we will have to fight if this continues for years to come?
6 Where does this even stop? Should we make everything 50-50 now? At the garbage disposal, in care, at the Dutch national team? By the way, there are about 100,000 more women in the Netherlands. What do we do with them? And all sole proprietorships? How do we make that 50-50?
7 Women get all kinds of things in their heads. They also want to be paid equally for equal work. Do you know what that costs?! If we’re not careful, we’ll soon have a female prime minister too! A woman with political ambitions anyway. The horror.
8 Where should misogynists go? They can hardly go home anymore, in the judiciary, in education, at the NS, the ANWB, at Albert Heijn (all female CEOs!). I recently heard that there are even female construction supervisors!
Soon, misogynists will only be able to be themselves in the football canteen, in prison and at the men’s hairdresser. Attention should be paid to that.
9 But the biggest objection is of course that you need many more women in the Council of Ministers if you really want to show them their best, as research has also shown.
Professor of leadership Janka Stoker of the University of Groningen sent me a scientific article from The Leadership Quarterly which stated that women can only really talk and participate in decisions if they are in the majority. This is not necessary for men. They take the floor, even when they are sitting at a table with only women. Not women. Even with an equal distribution, these are still snowed under by the men.
And no, it doesn’t help them to talk back hard, because hard talk women are quickly found to be bitchy, according to research. But appoint even more women to solve this problem?! Pffff… Soon we will only be left with Man Rutte!
Nobody wants that on their conscience.
How was your week? Tips for Japke-d. Bouma through @Japked on Twitter.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of January 12, 2022
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