Inspiring people @WUR: Rens Vliegenthart

Wageningen University & Research is committed to creating an environment of inclusion, diversity and equal opportunities because we are convinced that this contributes to better research and education. In this interview, Rens Vliegenthart, Professor and Chair Holder of Strategic Communication, answers some questions about diversity and inclusion.

Inclusion

Tell us about your early days at WUR, how did that go?

I started here in Wageningen on 1 July 2022. I was a professor at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), but I already knew WUR and its people from the external advisory committees I was involved in for the recruitment of a new Chair Holder for Strategic Communication at WUR. During these procedures, you talk to people, you notice how they interact with each other and you get an idea of the atmosphere. And the atmosphere is what really appealed to me. Everyone is friendly, helpful and driven.

I personally come from a much larger group. I was Research Director at the UvA Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), with a staff of 200. This chair group first had 10 employees, but has since doubled to 20. Yes, that includes our PhD candidates. They certainly count too. They are the ones who carry the research and determine the success of the group. Personally, I’m really happy to once again be working more closely on the content of research and teaching, and to build the chair group together.

What about the double transfer you and Sanne Kruikemeier made from UvA to WUR?

After we repeatedly failed to find a suitable new chair holder, I was asked whether I would be interested in the position. At the UvA, I worked closely with Sanne Kruikemeier and I recommended her to WUR. We eventually made the switch together and started here as professors in the same group pretty much at the same time.

You were the one to be appointed chair holder? Shouldn't that position have been given to a woman?

It was certainly not my objective to become chair holder. I would have been quite happy with a personal chair. The division of roles did not matter to us, but only one name could be linked to the position of chair holder. I was chosen because I have more administrative experience; 10 years as a professor, director of a research institute and three years as President of Research at the Young Academy (KNAW).

Sanne is happy to have the opportunity to gain experience, and I try to give her the space she needs to do so. That’s the beauty of it. As a chair holder, you are free to interpret that role however you want. There are three of us doing the work. Sanne is responsible for research, Bob Mulder is in charge of teaching and I have final responsibility. For example, Sanne has taken the lead in developing our group’s new research profile for the coming years. When you trust each other, you can also share the hard stuff.

How is WUR different from your previous employer when it comes to inclusion?

When I compare WUR and UvA, I feel that, at the UVA’s Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, topics such as inclusion and diversity were more prevalent in discussions, training programmes and courses than they are here. They often appeared on the agenda of administrative consultations. More so than here, as far as I can judge at present. So there is more talk about it at the UvA, but I don’t know whether that means there is more action too.
The difference in the percentage of female professors is striking, though.

In Amsterdam, in a department as big as all of SSG, the ratio is approximately 50/50, compared to less than 75/25 here. In part, this is due to the culture within the Faculty, and, in part, the result of a deliberate policy. I have served on many advisory committees, and inclusion and diversity were included as a standard.

I have also been a member and President of the Young Academy, which welcomes 10 new members every year, and the ratio there has been 50/50 for years. In recent years, the Academy has even appointed more women than men. When appointing new members, socioeconomic background and diversity also play a role. Membership of the Young Academy gives prestige and boosts a person’s career. It is a kind of administrative springboard for men, but certainly for women too.

Assuming equal qualifications, would you choose to give a position to a woman?

Yes. What makes it tricky is that candidates are never precisely equal. Everyone has their own capabilities. The range of tasks is often highly varied, and includes things like teaching, research, valorisation and leadership, but not everyone is able to do everything. That is also what the Recognition & Rewards discussion is about. You have to evaluate people based on the qualities they bring and those will never be the same in two candidates.

I think you need to explicitly define in advance what you’re looking for, otherwise people will be chosen based on unspoken criteria. If you think beforehand about who or what kind of employee you need within a group, you can avoid bias (unconscious prejudice). You have to look at how an individual fits into the larger context, and not look for someone who can do everything.

By the way, I’m in favour of quotas. In my opinion, it is the only way to break the glass ceiling for women, which is very real. The higher you get in an organisation, the fewer women. These lagging numbers need to be straightened out, and to achieve that, we need quotas.

Diversity

The vision at WUR is that it doesn't matter who you love, what language you speak, where you were born or what you believe in. What is your experience of this?

When I look at the portrait gallery of older, white men in Omnia, I wonder whether that is the image you wish to communicate, for example to female PhD candidates from other countries? Hang those portraits somewhere else, or include female professors among them.

I do have to admit that I have a blind spot when it comes to diversity. After all, I am a white man who can easily tick off all ‘7 check marks’ (tip: Google Joris Luyendijk), so my experience of diversity is inherently differently from that of, say, a PhD candidate from the global south. I’ve supervised many PhD candidates, and when I look at the working conditions of a sandwich PhD (doing one year of research here and largely organising their own funding) and compare it to a ‘standard’ PhD (doing four years of research here and getting a full salary), it is clearly not the same.

I have become more of a feminist myself. I may not experience these things myself because I am a man, but I can see how difficult it is for women and minorities to be taken seriously. As a ‘succesful man with 7 check marks’, I see it as my job to speak up about it. And indeed to take action and sometimes step aside and make room. The solution often lies in the small things. For example, you can at least include women, or better yet put a majority of women on every thesis committee.

As a man, you can give women some interesting tasks, rather than only ‘chores’. You can also put your female junior researchers, PhD candidates and assistant professors on a pedestal. In my opinion, we need to support women early on in their careers to actually do something about the gender imbalance.

Did the image you had of WUR match up with your actual experiences in this area?

As I said, I’m a little disappointed when I compare it to UvA. It may be that, traditionally, Life Sciences has been a more male-dominated topic. It is difficult to change a culture. People are often stuck in their own frames of reference. Managers and bystanders must be willing and able to act on it.

What are the opportunities in this respect for WUR?

Looking at my own field, there is a huge amount of female talent. We mostly hired women for recent vacancies. This was not difficult to do because female PhD candidates, postdocs and assistant professors often include better female candidates, with better study results, high motivation, and extra-curricular activities. They have often done more to get to this point and they are very clear about what they want.

As a manager, you must always take things like pregnancy and family situation into account. I am in awe of how my female colleagues manage to combine their personal lives with their careers. Take the early-morning lecture times. This is something you must take into account in the timetables. It’s important to be flexible in this.

Luckily, academic work leaves plenty of room for this kind of flexibility. As a father of three young children, this is also something I benefit from. Although it is always a difficult balance; work and home can sometimes get mixed up. You have to be able to talk about it with each other, and work from trust.

In conclusion

How do you remain inspired and motivated at work? Where do you get your energy from?

Personally, I get energy from once again focussing on content with this great group of people. Doing more research and teaching myself again, that makes me happy. Back with my nose to the grindstone, to put it in somewhat graphic terms. Interesting content is what motivates me.

I also find inspiration in my surroundings. We get to work with young, extremely talented people. It never gets boring, because everyone is different and brings in new ideas. I think I have by now had the opportunity to supervise approximately 30 PhD candidates. When I see how they continue to grow, I really enjoy the feeling that I could contribute to their development.

What are your plans 10 years from now? Do you see yourself still working at WUR?

You never know, but I think so. I really like it here, and this was not a choice for the short term. If I continue to go to work every morning with this much enjoyment, I will definitely still be working at WUR in 10 years’ time. I have strong ambitions for our group, and we can work on important issues like the farmers’ crisis, the nitrogen crisis, and climate, all of them hot topics.

My position here allows me to bring these topics together. There are so many opportunities at WUR for interdisciplinary work on these very topics. That makes me enthusiastic about my work here.