Female Academics Moving toward Equity (FAME)

Females in Academia Moving towards Equity (FAME) is an interdisciplinary, university-wide initiative designed to further the participation, empowerment and achievement of women faculty and women professional services employees of all ranks.

Gender Parity? Gender equity? Don’t we have that already?

The World Economic Forum’s 2022 Global Gender Gap Report found that gender parity is 132 years away, and that the progress towards parity is stalling. The annual monitors of the Dutch Network of Women Professors find that the representation of women academics declines from each step of the academic career to the next. The percentage of woman professors at Dutch Universities increased to 26.7% in 2022 (Women Professors Monitor 2022) but the pace of this growth is also slowing down. There is growing evidence that women face important barriers in academia (Lundberg, 2020), such as lower recognition for joint work (Sarsons et al., 2021) and implicit biases in teaching evaluations, which have direct and indirect impact on promotion chances (Boring, 2017). This is therefore not a time to be complacent but to keep moving toward gender balance and equity goals within EUR.

Mission

Our mission is to contribute to Erasmus University’s equity aspirations. This requires attention to recruitment, empowerment, development and promotion of female academic staff, and as rapidly as possible. We believe collective advocacy is key. Individually we are a drop, but together we are an ocean!

Vision

FAME wants to be a network of female academics and professional services staff that:

Contributes to expanding the inclusive and welcoming nature of EUR.
Helps shape policies, procedures and practices that reduce implicit and explicit barriers faced by female employees and so contribute to greater gender balance in academia.
Empowers all ranks of females in academia to participate in setting EUR’s research and education agendas, and in its governance structures.
Is recognized as a network that inspires females in academia to reach their fullest potential. This network is a safe environment where individuals can find, and act as, role models and mentors, and learn from each other’s experiences.
We are seen as an informed and determined advocate for inclusion, equity, diversity, and access. We are a body whose advice is sought by other female networks within EUR and with connections to other female networks in Dutch academia.

Values

FAME is guided in its advocacy, community building activities and governance by five core values - D.R.I.V.E.:

Diversity

We believe innovation, insight, creativity, and decision-making are enhanced when diversity of perspectives is considered. This requires an inclusive environment that values diversity in all its manifestations. Additionally, when lack of gender diversity is the result of barriers faced by women, we are not making the most of the talent available. For all these reasons, diversity is not only a matter of equity, but also of quality.

Respect

Respect for individuals and minoritized groups is key to creating the environment necessary for them, and so all members of our community, to flourish and contribute to the maximum of their ability.

Inclusiveness

Diversity is not sustainable without inclusiveness. We therefore commit to supporting EUR in creating an inclusive environment. All individuals are, and see themselves as, recognized, valued, and equally engaged members of the larger community. We believe this is crucial to ensure individuals not only excel, but also choose to remain, in our community. Only in this way is the EUR able to make the most of all talent that it attracts.

Vocalization

As network, we are vocal, individually and collectively. We hold ourselves accountable for: bringing discriminatory practices and behaviours to the attention of EUR leadership; advocating for change in policies and practices that hinder progress of females and individuals who identify as such. We also hold ourselves responsible for acknowledging when progress is made.

Equity

We strive for equity and equality of opportunities. We also recognize the contribution of role of legacy of discrimination to inequality of opportunities. This means that we must look beyond the stock of individuals’ achievements so as to also consider the impact of barriers faced over time. Adequate support and opportunities are required to remedy all these aspects of inequity.

Activities

FAME organizes activities and offers services specific to women in all ranks of academia across EUR. These include:

organizing meetings and information exchange;
advocacy;
stimulating talent and promoting flow;
community building;
providing resources;
solicited and unsolicited advice to management;
mentoring
celebrating females who stimulate female talent by organizing the annual Athena Awards.

Check this page regularly to stay informed!

Corine van der Sande & Hanan el Marroun

Fame Athena Awards

With this year's Athena Award, FAME aims to celebrate staff members and students who stimulate early career female talent within the academic environment and are a true example for others.

More about the Athena Awards

FAME Committee members

Dr Teresa Bago d’Uva is Associate Professor of Health Economics at the Erasmus School of Economics and research fellow of the Tinbergen Institute. Teresa teaches econometrics courses in Bachelor and Master programmes at the Erasmus School of Economics. Her main research interests lie in the areas of health economics and micro-econometrics, particularly (heterogeneity in) accuracy of self-reported health measures and inequalities in health and health care utilisation. She has also been the ESE diversity officer since 2017.
Dr Gabi Helfert is Executive Director MSc Programmes at Rotterdam School of Management and responsible for managing a portfolio of 15 master programmes with about 3,200 enrolled students. She received her PhD in Management from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Dr Helfert is also a Steering Committee Member of the RSM initiative on Inclusiveness, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) and leads the working group on inclusive education at RSM.
Dr Katarina Putnik is Senior HR Policy Advisor Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Access (IDEA) at Erasmus University, embedded in IDEA centre and HR strategy department. Her main focus is to support structural changes to make our university more inclusive for our employees (a.o. by changing the processes, developing instruments, trainings, providing advice etc) and while changing the system, support individual employees to navigate the system. She has a PhD in social medicine from Maastricht University and 10 years research experience on IDEA related topics.
Dr Federica Violi is Associate Professor in International Law at Erasmus School of Law and has previously lectured on International law and EU law at the University of Messina. She received her PhD from the University of Milan. Her thesis is a study on the relationship between permanent sovereignty over natural resources and the phenomenon of land grabbing. She has been visiting research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for International and Comparative Public Law, Heidelberg in 2014 and 2016 and at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, Columbia Law School, New York in 2019. Her research interests include due diligence, sovereignty and territoriality, investor-State dispute settlement and investment contracts in natural resources. Besides her academic activities, Federica has worked as a barrister and has served as a trainee at the Permanent Mission of Italy to the UN and other IOs in Geneva, and at the EU Commission (DG Devco) in Brussels.