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 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

Prof. Dr Rosalba Icaza Garza is Professor of Global Politics, Feminisms and Decoloniality at ISS and Deputy Dean of Research. In that capacity, she is responsible for the overall research environment and PhD program in Global Development and Social Justice. Her academic work combines global politics, feminism and decolonial analysis while deploying rigorous, socially engaged research methodologies. Thematically, she conducts research on the geo and body politics of knowledge production in international development studies; the politics of comparative regionalisms with a particular focus in Central and South America; the politics of transnational activism of First Nations/indigenous, anti-racist and environmental justice movements; and alternative research methodologies and pedagogies for international and global studies informed by post/decolonial and feminist approaches. As a teacher, and mentor in both undergraduate and postgraduate education in seven different countries, she has learned the importance of deep listening, connection, and relation for sustaining long-lasting collaborative work. As a woman of color, Rosalba understands her role in academia as an opportunity to honor those who precede her and mentor those who come after her.
Dr Gabi Helfert is Cluster Lead/Director of Educational Excellence at Rotterdam School of Management. She heads a cluster of 5 teams, working on educational logistics and learning innovation, with a total of close to 30 employees. 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 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.
Lucille Brakefield works in the Learning & Innovation team of Erasmus School of Economics. She is the coordinator of the Career Skills programme for third year bachelor students and the Guidance courses for first years. In this position, Lucille coordinates about 30 courses that all focus on student success and skills development. Lucille is motivated to enable students to work and reflect on their personal and professional development.
Dr Ellen Frank Delgado is an HR Policy Advisor Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Access (IDEA) at the IDEA Center at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her main focus is supporting structural changes to make our university more inclusive for employees. She obtained her PhD in Sociology from the University of Edinburgh in 2024 with her doctoral research on conceptualising inclusion/exclusion and gender-based violence within higher education in the United Kingdom. Her research maintains a mixed-methods approach that embraces computational social science. She has over eight years of experience working in IDEA-related topics both within academia and in the private sector.