Awarded full marks for her final dissertation, on Saturday 25 June Florianne Verkroost graduated in the ATLAS bachelor’s programme from the University of Twente. Her dissertation, which combined elements of econometrics and sociology, posed the question: how is it possible that in 2012 (the year in which the empirical study ended) women in the Netherlands still earn less than men?
Ambitious as she is, Florianne Verkroost has been keen to combine her studies with professional and personal advancement. In the first year of her course, for example, she created from nothing an ATLAS student association: Atlantis. An energising study period abroad brought her to Berkeley, rated the best public university in the US, to learn something about stochastics, financial engineering, and American Studies (‘brilliant’). And shortly before graduating she was given an opportunity seldom, if ever, accorded to someone in her position: she was invited to attend Sociology Day (the annual conference of the Dutch Sociological Association), at which virtually all Dutch sociologists present their latest work. More impressive still, this illustrious body invited this bachelor’s degree student to submit data on a core theme of her own field of study: inequality.
Painstaking work
‘The Gender Wage Gap in the Netherlands from 1986 to 2012: a Multilevel Analysis’. As her admirers expected, Florianne produced an expertly-crafted dissertation, the content and style of which made it eminently suitable for ‘publication in an international science journal’. Equally impressive were her painstaking efforts, beginning with the ground work of collating, arranging and operationalising basic data, when realizing that organisations and institutions can be rather idiosyncratic in how they apply the codes for wages, training, and other such variables that Florianne had so diligently sought to track down - codes, furthermore, that over the years they sometimes changed. As Florianne explains: ‘According to the data from one educational institution, for example, more females than males were studying science and engineering – something that could not possibly be right!’ It meant that her computer program could come unstuck, thanks to a misplaced comma or a full stop too many, and the result of this was a month and a half’s extra work, 17 hours per day (‘as my parents can testify!’). However, it caused no panic: ‘It felt like a challenge and motivated me to produce a high-quality dissertation’.
What figures eventually emerged, and what is the situation with regard to the disparity in wages paid to men and women in the Netherlands?
‘My most significant findings do indeed relate to what academic jargon refers to as the Gender Wage Gap (GWG). When you apply only variables not checked for discrimination, such as part-time work or fewer years’ work experience, this gap narrowed from 40% in 1986 to 32 % in 2012. But when you check these factors, the figures are then 20% and 9%. A significant element of the wage disparity between males and females is therefore a logical consequence of females being less well qualified, or not having technical qualifications, or undertaking part-time work more often than males. That said, my analysis produces a residual value of 9 per cent that is unaccounted for. That’s actually quite a lot.’
State of the Art
“I had no idea where to begin with my dissertation, because I hadn’t taken a single course that related to the subject matter’, recalls Florianne. Nevertheless, as her academic supervisors can confirm, she was able to make this field of study her own within a short space of time, and to discover what important questions still needed answers – questions that she then went on to answer herself, using high-tech and state-of-the-art methods and techniques. These, along with social involvement and an affinity with new technology, are qualities that the top research programme ATLAS is proud to bring out in its students.
After your bachelor’s degree, what will you do next, and what experiences will remain with you from your time on the ATLAS programme?
‘I am relocating to Rotterdam to study for a master’s in Econometrics and Management Science at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. What will I take away with me? Things such as how to identify gaps in knowledge and skills, and how to fill these gaps, and – related to this – a problem-solving approach. I have also increasingly appreciated within the ATLAS programme the value of teamwork. There aren’t many subjects you can say that about. And you can learn such a lot from your fellow students, because they have different interests and focus on different areas of study. Working together in this way has given me so much, personally and professionally!’
