commentaryThis is a hopeful time for daughters to grow up. Because that way we can also look at the Metoo discussion that flares up in every nook and cranny of society, writes our chief news officer Saskia van Westhreenen.
After The Voice football company Ajax is the second stronghold to be scratched by the transgressive behavior of powerful men. The details are always just as appalling. Powerful men texted unsolicited oblique messages or photos of a cock in aroused state.
More than a century ago, women’s suffrage was introduced in the Netherlands. Since then, more and more feminist figureheads have appeared in politics who were fierce in word and deed, or women who calmly and stoically discharged their duties. In politics and the cabinet, the male-female ratio is now almost in balance.
In business it is different. According to the latest Female Board Index, fewer female directors were appointed last year than the year before. No fewer than 73 percent of the listed companies still have no female director. In fact, a legal quota for women had to be introduced to oblige large companies to appoint more women to their leadership. The Senate voted in favor of this at the end of last year.
It is a godsend for the future of all our daughters that we in the Netherlands start a conversation about limitless sexism that is present in too many places
Many reports have been written about the glass ceiling that is so laboriously broken by women. Scientists are constantly puzzled as to why. Is it the financing of our childcare? Or do Dutch women simply not feel like making a career?
Perhaps part of the answer lies in the affairs that are unfolding now. You just have to feel like entering a monkey rock.
Of course, the vast majority of men are made of good stuff. But for the future of all our daughters, it is a godsend that we in the Netherlands start a conversation about limitless sexism that is present in too many places. That healthy relationships in the workplace are being considered from Assen to Zundert. That we dare to hold each other accountable for indecent behaviour.
So that all those daughters get a fair chance on a playing field where it doesn’t matter whether you are male or female. Really, no women’s quota can compete with that.
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