Female students outnumber men, but men still hold top jobs

For 23 academic years, Dutch higher education institutions have counted more female than male students, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported on Wednesday 8 March – International Women’s Day. Despite this, the Netherlands is still struggling to close its gender wage gap, and Dutch businesses still have more men than women in leadership positions, reports NLTimes.

During the 2021-22 academic year, approximately 443,000 women studied at a Dutch university or university of applied sciences, compared to 393,000 men. The ratio between women and men in higher vocational or university education remained largely consistent over the past decade. In the 2021-22 academic year, 54% of students at a university (WO) and 53% at a higher professional education institution (HBO) were women. Pre-university education (VWO) has also counted more women than men since the 1995-96 school year.

But despite all this progress at the education level, women are still struggling in the labour market compared to men. The European statistics agency Eurostat recently reported that at this rate, the gender wage gap in Europe will only be closed in 2086.
Full report on the NLTimes site