At last, a woman’s name on the nameplate

When Merel Verhoef, an Electrical Engineering student, heard last year that yet another area in her Faculty was going to be named after a man, she felt as though she had been slapped in the face.

A list of all 21 floors with their countless labs and lecture halls did not make her any happier – they all bore the names of men. She thought that it should not come as any surprise that so few women study or work in electrical engineering. Surely the open days do not help attract women if they do not recognise themselves in that environment?

Verhoef expressed her frustrations to Ilke Ercan, Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering, who was on the point of claiming an as yet nameless space to set up her much desired Makerspace. This would be a space for extracurricular experiments and tryouts. Ercan says that it was perfect timing. “I was immediately able to do something about Merel’s frustrations.”

She came up with a plan to name a room in her building after a female scientist for the first time. The Computer Science building (building 28), also part of the faculty of EEMCS, already had a room named after Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani.

Eight women

Ercan compiled a shortlist of eight women from TU Delft and outside that she read about in various books such as Ongekend (Unknown, by Margriet van der Heijden) and Vrouwen in Techniek (Women in Technology by Marina van Damme-van Weelen and J.H.M. Ressing-Wolfert) who had played significant parts in electrical engineering, mathematics or computer science.

At the beginning of this academic year, students were invited to fill in a survey to help choose whose name would be appear on the nameplate. Ercan received 150 responses within one month.

Most votes went to Hendrika van Leeuwen, the first female lector at TU Delft. Johanna Manders came in second place, but, acting on the interests of students, the Faculty’s administrators chose her as the namesake. Along with Jeanne de Kroes, she was the first woman to graduate in Electrical Engineering from TU Delft.

Louka Verstraete, an Electrical Engineering student, says that she is impressed by the woman that Manders was. “She graduated cum laude, earned a doctorate, and was apparently a strong personality.”  So she was not only the first woman to do something, she also excelled. This is why Verstraete voted for her.

Room 1.210 was then named the Johanna Manders Makerspace. Annoesjka Cabo, the Director of Education, says that it really is important that one of the doors in the Faculty proudly bears a woman’s name. “Women are still massively underrepresented in electrical engineering. We need role models to show that women too can forge ahead in this field.”

Share of women

At the EEMCS Faculty, 16.8% of bachelor students and 18.2% of master students are women. In comparison, across TU Delft, the percentages are around 30%. The share of female employees at the Faculty also lags behind the average at TU Delft.

Cabo would like to see this change. And also for the men that walk around the Faculty. “They should not think it normal that a much higher percentage of men choose this field and are successful. We are all humans with passions that we should be able to go after.”

The proportion of female assistant professors is growing steadily through actions like modifying the matching procedure and paying greater attention to female talent in the personnel policy (without the male talent missing out, Cabo emphasises).

Blossoming

This also benefits the quality of education and research, says Cabo. “Research shows that diverse teams with different perspectives perform better. Minorities blossom in environments that are diverse and drop out less.”

Thirteen percent of the members of the Electrical Engineering Society (ETV) study association is female. This is a record, says Mali Barends, External Commissioner in a corner of the ETV. Above her are black and white portraits of honorary members. Yes, you guessed it, only men.

A few years ago, the ETV set up a separate women’s committee that organises activities targeted at female members. “We do more womanly things which would normally not be done,” says Barends. The committee is there to help women connect and know who they can approach if needed.

Womanliness

Barends says that it can be hard to show your female side in an environment with so many men. “In my first year especially, if I were wearing a dress I had the feeling that everyone in the lecture hall was looking at me.”

Through FEE (Female Electrical Engineers), its women’s committee, the ETV hopes to create space for that womanliness at the opening of the Johanna Manders Makerspace by offering activities like painting mugs and jewellery workshops.

Barends also organises the annual women’s dinner. The student association invites female engineers to the dinner to show the students what they can do after they graduate. It is one way to give the current generation role models and show what is possible, says Barends.

Sexism

Yet, Ercan has discovered that a female oriented approach is not appreciated by everyone. There was one negative response to her survey. “The person accused me of sexism and unethical behaviour because I selected the name on the basis of gender. They believed that the choice should be made according to what someone has achieved.”

But that reaction only made her stronger. “My thought was that I too would like to live in a perfect world where everyone gets the recognition that they deserve.”

Student Merel Verhoef cannot think of even one good reason for the lack of women’s names. “Some people may say that there simply has not yet been a good enough woman. But the shortlist shows that this is not the case.”

For Verhoef, the naming is ‘a small part in a bigger whole’. “If that nameplate can attract just one girl to walk through the door and study Electrical Engineering, it has achieved its goal.”