Managing Science in a European Setting After and Australian PhD
Carolann Wolfgang
I
have worked in The Netherlands for a year now, moving from Australia after
completing my PhD at the ANU, Canberra. I moved here because I wanted a new
challenge after the PhD, plus I met my (now) husband who is Dutch. I currently
work at TNO* as an international project manager. TNO does a variety of
research; I specialize in implementing environmental programs for the European
Union. My main project is entitled WELCOME, which is developing an integrated
management system to apply at complex hazardous waste sites in western and
eastern Europe. The department I work in does a lot of bioremediation projects
and wastewater management around the European Union.
The context difficulty is the languages, work is in Dutch, German, English and I work with partners in Belgium, Poland and other countries. This has taken a lot of energy to move from a single, native language to listening to and interpreting so many languages in one meeting, for example. So the intellectual challenge for me continues in this way. I’m still learning Dutch and taking periodic classes. I can now empathise with so many people who come to America and Australia to work but had to reach such a high standard of English before they could adequately practice their science.
What have I found as a female scientist here in Europe? I wish I could say it is all superbly professional and we can all now relax. Instead I have had some very opposing experiences – there are so many conflicting signals coming in at once that it is clear there is much work to be done – still!
On the one hand, most of the people I deal with are men, and I am treated very much like a woman in traditional terms. For example, when I deal with my Polish colleagues I am introduced as Dr. Wolfgang and my hand gets kissed by a bowed head, my drinks get bought, and chairs pulled out for me. In Italy, well, I just get kissed no matter how I’m introduced. All so different from the way we are treated in America and Australia. This is good in that it focuses on the longer term relationships but on the other hand is very informal and things move more slowly. A difference is that I miss the cues, the way to tell that I am accomplishing a positive, forward moving relationship. In America they can hide the true feelings, but soon it comes out whether or not they like you, and pretty much will do business with you no matter what in the end. In Australia I felt an immediate, initial acceptance and then a kind of “we’ll go from there” attitude. But here I can go for months asking and probing people again and again, discussing things, and either get silence or agreement, but then all of a sudden a burst of total disagreement after moving in a particular direction for months. This is what I have to get used to.
Also there is a strong expectation of respect for Professors in Germany for example. If I tried to treat my professor in Australia like he was a god he would get seriously annoyed and tell me “that’s a bit how ya goin’, mate”. Whereas here sometimes a Professor will not even deal directly with me, let alone look at me in a meeting situation, I am too below him in this way. This is not my style, so it is also unnerving to my ego.
I do not have any trouble being taken seriously at TNO, despite there being few women, particularly in management. Further, I find the PhD title well worth it and gain a lot of respect with that. My husband and I live just over the border in Germany now, because of the housing shortage in The Netherlands. Here he gets my title by default and becomes Mr. Dr. van Calker - without having to go through all the trouble of obtaining a PhD! I would like to point out that this custom is very non-discriminatory and I would be Mrs. Dr. van Calker if he had the PhD.
As you can imagine, there are lots of new experiences and responses to deal with! Initially, these experiences made me want to investigate and write an article on statistics from the European Union on women and research. Instead, I would like to share my reactions to a recent cover feature I saw in a Dutch career-focused newspaper, called Intermediair. The article was entitled (in Dutch) “Bitches breken doer” (bitches break through) and was accompanied by a large photo of smiling Jolanda Tijhuis, 40 years, director of Delta Lloyd Schade, a company in the Netherlands. While ‘bitches’ seems to be an acceptable phrase for ambitious women here in The Netherlands, I must admit I still don’t know how to feel about this typical straightforward Dutch title or the section that followed listing “example bitches”. As an international person here, the feelings it engendered caused me much concern – quite justified as I read on.
The cover page continued (more or less loosely translated), “how goes the glass ceiling?” and answers “Usually 70 hour work weeks and not complaining”. The article claimed that “top women are just men” and listed several success factors for a ‘top woman’. These aren’t so surprising. They include: ambition, networking, getting on well with the management, intelligence, and a partner who helps with the house tasks. I was glad the latter had been included. I thought this meant that we don’t have to be superwomen any more. But I changed my mind again when I read the tips for career women. Yeah, you do have to be a superwoman. You have to not be afraid to compete, not to doubt yourself, work to bring yourself closer to a higher position by interesting side routes, plus spread the word about your own capacity; make your career wishes known and don’t listen to friends that call you a workaholic. I found the comment concerning networking quite disturbing. The article says that top male managers do not want to be associated with female networks, because they don’t like the image of women who have problems in a male culture.
As a ‘career woman’ in her mid 30’s I have to ask, what happened to all of those books and advice that came out in the 90’s that suggested “the female advantage” and promoted the feminine traits of management? Now it seems we’re trying to be, as the subtitle stated, just men again. This was also reflected in a comment made by a company-president friend from San Francisco who attended a prestigious executive MBA program recently. He said about his MBA-mate; “she’s great, she’s really made it, Vice President of such and such, she makes a 6-figure salary, she plays golf with the clients because she knows what it takes”.
I’m not complaining, but, well, I don’t like golf. Will I ever then be a company-woman with a 6-figure salary?
Some data on working women in The Netherlands was included in the article: the Netherlands, Ireland, and Denmark are the lowest in Europe in this last area.
As you can see, the number of women on boards of directors and as university professors is quite small. I believe the number is about the same, just over 50%, for working women in 2002. Many women I know here are either part time workers or not working. I’m not sure how these numbers compare with those in Australia but it would be interesting to see an analysis of trends.
In conclusion I wanted to share these data and some points from this article with you in the hope that it brings interesting discussion points from a European perspective around the tables. To be honest, to have to deal with all this after trying to combine science and management fields in America and Australia for over 15 years, I get a bit confused. Despite this, I will never change from a commercial industry management track with a science focus because I love it. And I am very determined and ambitious as the article says I should be. But I will just never play golf!
Dr. Carolann Wolfgang
(email: c.wolfgang@mep.tno.nl)
International Project Manager Environmental Biotechnology
*TNO Environment, Energy and Process Innovation (The Netherlands Organisation
for Applied Scientific Research)