About ECWO
What ECWO can do for you, your organisation and society
The global imbalance of women leaders – and the implicit loss of talent – is holding society back. At Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University we are committed to redressing the gender balance through the impactful and wide-ranging work of the Erasmus Centre for Women and Organisations (ECWO).
We are a leading institution in empowering and connecting communities of women to drive their careers and play a meaningful role in reaching gender equality globally.
Our work is built around enabling individual, organisational and societal change. We do this through a suite of open programmes, including our signature Women in Leadership Open Programme, and working collaboratively with different organisations to deliver customised programmes that fully leverage the competitive advantage that gender balance brings. Our programmes are grounded in continuously updated applied research that illuminates how and why gender imbalance exists. We also have a dedicated research team that also undertakes our own and collaborative research into how to achieve gender equality.
Team
Dianne Bevelander, PhD
Founder

Hanneke Takkenberg, PhD
Executive Director

Dorothy Grandia, MA
Associate Director of Programming

Michael Page, PhD
Senior Researcher

Diane Coetzer, MA
Senior Project Manager
Read more

Rianne van Reeuwijk
Programme Manager

Hetty Brand-Boswijk, CPCC, PCC
Head of Coaching

Joana Vassiliopoulou, PhD
Project lead, EQUAL4EUROPE

Gaby Dijkstra, MA
Researcher and Project Co-ordinator EQUAL4EUROPE

Natalie Cleton, PhD
Women in Leadership programme facilitator

Wiley Davi, PhD
Women in Leadership programme facilitator

Stephanie Mitrano, PhD
Emotions in Business Programme facilitator

Karen Stephenson, PhD
The DNA of Networks programme facilitator

Programmes
Our programmes for women aim to optimise your leadership capabilities. They empower you with the tools, the shared insights, the broader perspective and the enhanced management skills to advance your career. And fulfil your potential as an agent of change.
Women in Leadership
Take a decisive step forward. Women in Leadership challenges you to explore your own leadership, build knowledge and acquire the negotiating, influencing and networking tools to take real ownership of your career. Debate, exchange and engage with women in leadership positions and experts from a broad diversity of backgrounds. Learn how to translate challenges into opportunities. And prepare to take your career to the next level.
- 2-day programme
- Faculty: Barbara Banda and Natalie Cleton
- Get in touch: Diane Coetzer
Communication with Power and Impact for Women
Gain the understanding, tools and the confidence to empower your leadership. Craft effective messages, develop presentations that persuade, align your verbal and non-verbal language to your objectives. Through exploration of theory, open discussion and role-play, you will enhance your potential to influence and impact others through communication. More information can be found here.
- One-day workshop
- Faculty: Dorothy Grandia
- Get in touch: Diane Coetzer
Negotiating for Success: Women, Career and Business
Evidence suggests that there are clear differences in the outcomes of male and female negotiators depending on a variety of factors, ranging from time spent in the negotiation to how they frame the value of the outcome. Regardless, studies show that women perform better when they are trained and when they adapt their approach to the context of the negotiation.
In this interactive, one-day workshop, you will understand the role gender bias plays in negotiations, identify your default approach, and practice techniques you can use in your daily professional and personal life. More information can be found here.
- One-day workshop
- Faculty: Dorothy Grandia
- Get in touch: Diane Coetzer
Customised programmes
Our expert faculty and facilitators work in partnership with you to identify and diagnose your business needs and design a tailored solution that maps to your objectives.
Whether your goal is to enhance recruitment, retention, career progression or gender balance in leadership, we offer the flexibility in execution, evaluation and follow-up to deliver immediate and lasting impact for your people and your organization.
Contact our team today to discuss the best solution for your company and find out how ECWO can be a trusted partner in transformation.
Research
We explore women’s experience in the workplace, the issues that hold women back in business and what organisations, leaders and individuals can do to redress the gender imbalance, challenge prevailing mind-sets and drive real change. Our work is published in the world’s leading journals, books and practical resources for businesses and business leaders.
We are one of six organisations that are part of the EQUAL4EUROPE consortium. Largely conceptualised by our late founder, Prof. Dianne Bevelander, EQUAL4EUROPE is an H2020-funded four-year project. Starting in January 2020 and running to December 2023, the project is tasked with developing and implementing gender equality plans that accelerate the process of removing barriers to the recruitment, retention, and career progression of female researchers, address gender imbalances in decision-making processes and integrate the gender dimension in research and educational/innovation content.
EQUAL4EUROPE
You can read more on the EQUAL4EUROPE website.
Publications
Professor Dianne Bevelander's inaugural speech: The 8th summit women's ascent of organisations
Speaking as Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë stated as long ago as 1846 that “women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, to absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer …” and that “… it is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.” Less than a year later in 1847, these views resulted in an attack on the character of Jane as the “personification of an unregenerate and undisciplined spirit” by Elizabeth Rigby in the leading literary and political periodical of the time – The Quarterly Review.
I mention this as a preface to my inaugural address because the opinions raised by Jane Eyre are as relevant today as they were almost 170 years ago, and because the criticism of her character came from none other than another woman. Gender bias is as much a female issue as it is a male issue. Changing the gender paradigm will require extreme effort, commitment, and on-going attention from both men and women.
Read the news item about the inaugeral address.
Dianne Bevelander
February 2016
Other publications
Beyond the Bottom Line: Integrating the UN Global Compact into Business Practice
Chapter: Our Need, Your Interest: Responsible Decision Making in Private Equity
Dianne Bevelander
Accepted to be published Dec 2016 ·
Humor or Harassment?
Dianne Bevelander, Jacqueline Nolan, Michael Page
Jun 2015 · Harvard Business Review
On a mission: Achieving distinction as a business school?
Dianne Bevelander, Michael Page, Leyland Pitt, Michael Parent
Jun 2015 · South African Journal of Business Management
Integrating gender equality into business and management education : lessons learned and challenges remaining
chapter 22: The Eighth Summit: Women's ascent of organizations
Edited by Patricia M. Flynn, Kathryn Haynes and Maureen A. Kilgour
May 2015 · Sheffield, UK : Greenleaf Publishing Limited
Who is engaging with whom? Internationalizing opportunities for business schools in emerging economies
Dianne Bevelander
Sep 2012 · International Journal of Educational Management
Ms. Trust: Gender, Networks and Trust--Implications for Management and Education
Dianne Bevelander, Michael Page
Dec 2011 · The Academy of Management Learning and Education
Business schools and lifelong learning: Inquiry, delivery or developing the inquiring mind
Michael Page, Dianne Bevelander, David bond, Ella Boniuk
Dec 2006 · South African Journal of Business Management
Positioning the Executive MBA Product: Let's not forget the requirements of the corporate market
Michael Page, Dianne Bevelander, Leyland Pitt
Aug 2004 · Journal of General Management

White papers
Gender: Ms—ed opportunities for business schools?
Gender: Ms—ed opportunities for business schools? in Chinese
Dianne Bevelander and Michael Page
Oct 2016 · EMFD Business Magazine

Book chapters
De Economische Kracht van de Ondernemende Vrouw
Monique Brummans, Nicolette Loonen, Ingrid Verheul, Dianne Bevelander, Kim Boersma
February 2015 · Stichting Maatschappij en Onderneming


Stand Up. Reach Out
Helping organisations create social safety in the workplace
Are you interested in creating a socially safe workplace?
Have you been a victim of, or witness to, harassment in the workplace? Harassment with a big H or harassment with a small h?
Were you able to stop the harassment or intervene in a way that saw the situation resolved?
ECWO’s Stand Up. Reach Out workshop is designed to address harassment in a professional setting from the perspective of the individuals involved and enhance the participant’s ability to productively intervene. Standing up again workplace harassment and reaching out to the victims is a responsibility of the bystanders and of the company as a whole. The workshop addresses the many ways which this can be achieved.
Over the past few years, we have worked with organisations – from companies to academic institutions and more – to help create a socially safe workplace.
Our Stand Up. Reach out workshop takes participants from being a bystander to standing up against workplace harassment – from uncomfortable or inappropriate ‘jokes’ and offensive e-mails to the bullying and name-calling that are found in organisations. The workshop also address the big H issues such as intimidation, misuse of power, exclusion and even dangerous behaviour.
Research shows that 15% of employees are exposed to some form of workplace harassment with some sectors facing much higher incidents – for instance, in Dutch academia the percentage is 42. Research also shows that women are more often targeted than men. Recent studies show that workplace harassment is commonplace. In academia for example a staggering 42% of Dutch academics report being exposed to work place harassment. So the workshop addresses some crucial questions: Do the victims have a responsibility to stand up for themselves? Should bystanders address the situation right there, right then? Are all harassers awful people who should be fired immediately?
Facilitated by a team that includes ECWO’s Dr Natalie Cleton, Professor Hanneke Takkenberg and Gaby Dijkstra, and underpinned by current research, workshop participants will discuss and practice how to stand up to harassment in a manner that is beneficial not just for the victim, but also for the organisation as a whole. In an interactive way participants learn how to work with our 5Ds for intervening as a bystander.
A safe and inclusive working environment is a prerequisite for employees to develop their potentials to the fullest. Unfortunately, harassment - ranging from micro aggressions to overt misbehaviour - is still quite common in the workplace, and affects women more than men.
Dr Natalie Cleton
Expecting the victim to stop the harassment makes the victim responsible for the perpetrator’s behaviour. If victims often have good reasons for not speaking up themselves, and if asking them to do so puts a double burden on their shoulders, doesn't that mean that it is up to colleagues to speak up?
Dr Natalie Cleton
Read the article of Dr Natalie Cleton, one of our facilitators.
Read the report into harassment in academia by the Dutch Network of Women Professors (LNVH) which is chaired by our Executive Director, Professor Hanneke Takkenberg.
To find out more about our Stand Up. Reach Out workshop, please contact Gaby Dijkstra on dijkstra@rsm.nl. Please note that our workshop is available in both English and Dutch.
Coaching
Identify your goals, objectives and values. Develop the personal strategies to drive your career and enhance your life.
Our coaches empower you to explore your passion, your skills and the factors that motivate you, helping you unlock your full potential and tread a path of personal and professional discovery.
Our coaches
ECWO coaches empower you to get the best from yourself. And from others.
Our experts work one-to-one with you or your organization to pinpoint areas for growth. They challenge you to re-think your perspective, re-frame your goals and objectives and unlock your fullest potential to achieve them. They develop and guide you as you acquire deep insights and new skills. And they accompany you on every step of your journey of personal and professional transformation.
If you are ready overcome the barriers to success, to be empowered and to empower others, and to transition towards fulfillment in your life and career, get in touch with us today.
Community updates
Welcome to our ECWO community!
Our founder, Prof. Dianne Bevelander, believed in the power of the sisterhood.
“Creating a posse is vital for every part of your professional journey. Find people who believe in you. Throughout my life, I have had great mentors and sponsors who believed in me, probably more than I believed in myself. They gave me the courage to do what I wanted to do. Building your posse amplifies your courage and makes the previously unthinkable just a step forward! Remember that you also build your posse by asking, by having the courage to ask for help.”
In this space, we will share our initiatives in support of all women.
- If you’re in need of a refresher about how to get the best out of online meetings, watch our suite of videos.
- ECWO facilitator, Stéphanie Mitrano-Méda, has created an #emotionsatwork video series for our community.
You can follow us on LinkedIn and also apply to join our closed LinkedIn community which is a place for sharing your own stories, successes, insights and more into the journey to gender equality. And don’t forget to like our Instagram and join our Facebook community for inspirational moments and much more. We are also active in the global movement for gender equality on Twitter.
Do keep in touch. You can email us on ecwo@rsm.nl for more information and with any additional questions or suggestions that you might have.Together we can climb mountains.
Virtual sisterhood updates
Quick online meeting audio tips with Dory Grandia
Our Assistant Director, Dorothy Grandia, gives tips on how to prepare and use your online meeting audio, for the most substantive, effective communication.
Here is the link to the paper by Steffen R. Giessner, Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Change at RSM, referred to in the video.
Framing and angle with Dory Grandia
Watch the video below for tips from Dory Grandia
Keeping sane and healthy with Hanneke Takkenberg
Watch the video below for tips from Hanneke Takkenberg
Get the light right with Dory Grandia
Watch the video below for tips from Dory Grandia
Hetty Brand-Boswijk: Coaching our sisterhood though tumultuous times
Watch the video below for tips from Hetty Brand-Boswijk
#emotionsatwork with Stéphanie Mitrano-Méda
ECWO facilitator, Stéphanie Mitrano-Méda, has created an #emotionsatwork video series as a special contribution to our initiative to support women during this time.
The series on YouTube details:
