Will only one of the seven faculties at the Radboud University have a female dean soon? It’s quite possible now that two female deans have resigned. Professor Agnes Akkerman who specializes in labour relations, finds it hard to believe that no women can be found for the position.

There will soon be a couple changes at the top of a few faculties of the Radboud University. So will the work of Lutgarde Buydens, dean of the Faculty of Science, be continued by Sijbrand de Jong after 1 December.

Margot van Mulken, dean of the Faculty of Arts, has also announced her departure. ‘My intention was always to leave again soon because eight years at the same place is substantial for a director,’ she recently told Vox. It’s expected that the Faculty of Arts will have a new dean at the start of 2022.

With the departure of two female deans, the relation between male and female deans at the Radboud University might fall out of proportion. Until recently, there were three female deans. If the successor of Van Mulken is a man, Heleen Murre-van den Berg of the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies will soon be the only female dean. If Van Mulken’s successor is a woman then the relation between male and female will still be 5-2. Or 6-2, if you count the dean of Special Faculty of Theology.

The Executive Board also contains two men since the departure of Wilma de Koning.

Follow-up career

According to Agnes Akkerman, professor labour-market institutions and employment relationships, and specialized in labour relations, there are many explanations for the unbalanced representation of women in authorities and top positions. But that there wouldn’t be any candidates seems an unlikely explanation in the case of deans.

‘At our university, there are definitely enough suitable female professors,’ says Akkerman. ‘And otherwise they could be recruited from outside the university – which actually happened recently at the Nijmegen School of Management (dean Tom Elfring switched from the University of Liverpool Management School to Radboud University)’.

‘At our university, there are definitely enough suitable female professors’

Akkerman finds it more difficult to estimate if women maybe don’t want to become dean. According to her, not everyone sees the position of dean as the most desirable position. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if female professors are younger on average, and due to their follow-up career do not desire a position as dean,’ she explains, ‘simply because a return to a successful career as scientist is uncertain. But that’s speculation.’

Balanced composition

In any case, the recruitment procedure for new deans is incredibly complex. Eventually the board of directors appoints new deans but the ones who make the decision depends on the candidates who are nominated by the appointments advice committees (see box).

‘These committees have to search for the most suitable candidate,’ says the university’s spokesman Martijn Gerritsen. ‘They do have to pay attention to the male-female composition of the whole faculty board.’ Aside from the dean, that board also contains a vice dean and a director of operation.

The board of directors rarely deviates from the advice of an appointments committee. ‘The board will have to have strong arguments to ignore such advice,’ says Gerritsen. If there are not enough female deans at the Radboud University, according to the spokesman it will be important to create sufficient diversity within the faculty boards. ‘But preferably there will also be a balanced composition of deans.’

All in all, Akkerman who is also chairman for the Women Professors Network, is saddened by the limited amount of female deans. ‘It would be good if the board of directors would create some sort of pool of female – and maybe also male – professors who are being prepared for suchlike position,’ she says. ‘I’ve proposed that idea before by the way.’

‘It would be good if the board of directors would create some sort of pool of female professors’

 According to spokesman Martijn Gerritsen, the division Human Resources wants to capture the succession planning for director’s positions at the university ‘with the wide perspective of diversity and inclusion. Which colleagues can set the next step immediately or on short notice? The board of directors has already asked the faculties to pay extra attention to attract female high potentials.’