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DRUPPEL May 2020 - Volume 34

Female Pioneers

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on May 2020

The Druppel is a magazine of the student society of the master’s degree Watermanagement and Environmental Engineering of the TU Delft. The magazine is published three times a year.

Cover

Bor van der Scheer.

Distribution

The Druppel is distributed to all members and relations of the Dispuut Water & Environment, faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences of the TU Delft.

Contact

Dispuut Water & Environment, Room 4.74Stevinweg 1 - 2628 CN Delft015-2784284Dispuut-we-CITG@tudelft.nlwww.dispuutwaterandenvironment.nl/druppel

From the Editors

Hi there and welcome to this Drupple issue. It has been a really unexpected situation for all of us these past two months, but we hope you are in great health while

reading this issue!

This time, inspired by many of our amazing academic staffs, students, and people around the world, we brought you the theme of ‘Women in Technology’! Women and men both have their strengths and we want to point out some of the women’s strong points! To show you some good examples, we bring you the stories of our own academic staff, Dr. Lisa Scholten and the chair of DEWIS, Dr. Ir. Femke C. Vossepoel. We also have interesting input from our partners, stories from our students, and from own Drupple committee members

that are definitely worth reading.

We may need to stay at home for this period of time, but we hope all of you keep doing anything cool that you love to do! Keep your spirits high and we hope to see all of you guys at the Uni very soon.While this issue comes out when we are still in quarantine period, we would like to close with a word of advice. It’s ok to admit that going to supermarket is your most awaited moment of the week, small happiness still counts. Enjoy your little piece of

happiness!

The Drupple Committee

Katharina Wilbrand Cato van MeursAzzahra Safira

Samyuktha Sathish Mark Istvan Nagy Pooja Ramakrishna

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C o n t e n t s04

From the Board

06Graduates L ist

08Interv iew Dr. I r. Femke Vossepoel

13Calculat ing the way to improved c lean water access

14World Water Day 2020

24Surv iv ing Quarant ine

26Women in History

30Why do we care about

representat ion?

32Meet the New Board

35Past Events

16Student Pro ject : River Expedi t ion Myanmar

36Enterta inment T ips

20Researching innovat ive ways to reuse wastewater

38Being a grown-up gi r l in a

wor ld bui l t for men

22The Breeze - Dr. L isa Schol ten

40Bingo

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Fro

m t

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ard Dear Readers,

It has been an odd period these last few weeks. From online education and exams to a whole load of new apps to keep our social lives on track (Houseparty, zoom, any more tips?). The Dispuut Water & Environment should now maybe be the Dispuut water & (online) Environment with digital cookie breaks and even an online board change! Although Frank, Widya and Sander have sadly left us after a year of excellent work, we are joined by three fresh board members. Haye, Charlie and Annie are very excited to start their board year, which you will read all about in this Druppel!

Not everything is as fun online as it will be when we do it in real life, therefore we have decided to postpone some events to the beginning of the new academic year. The Dispuut will, for instance, celebrate her eighth Lustrum next academic year, so we can celebrate it together! The Lustrum committee has been working very hard to make this happen, so we have no doubt it will be a great success whenever we will celebrate it.

I would like to close with letting you know that the Dispuut is here for you in these difficult times. We understand it can be a confusing and lonely time, particularly for those amongst us isolating far away from family. So please don’t hesitate to email, skype, zoom, houseparty or text us if anything is bothering you or when you would like to have a chat. From an academic perspective, we are in very close contact with all the lecturers so for any complaints or concerns about your courses, we can think along with you. Furthermore, we need to keep that coffee addiction up so always keen for a distant coffee!

Stay healthy, keep your focus and hang on.

On behalf of board 67,Tiza Spit, President

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E v e n t s23 25 27

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August

Picnic New First-Year Activity New First-Year Activity

Chill at Delftse Hout Beach Leiden & BBQ

Due to the current COVID-19 measures there will be no more activities and on-campus education during this academic year. We all hope to start the new academic year by the end of August with the introduction programme for our new mas-ter students. Everyone will be happy to see each other again and to celebrate this accordingly we prepared a schedule including our regular Dispuut events as well as new activities and finally our extensive lustrum programme! As long as no

other measures have to be taken we will stick to this plan and are looking forward to welcome you all back.

AlwaysDream about quarantine

being over

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September

Activity Committee Activity Potluck Dinner Committee Interest Lunch

Start of Term Drinks Fitterij Champagne Breakfast21

23 24Symposium Dies Natalis & Party Dispuut Weekend

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26 29Fitterij Water Event Sustainable Brunch Lunch Lecture

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03 09 Q2

October

Tandem Rally & Gala Master Business Event Alumni Event

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Lis

tNames Subject

Kelly Chang Steering product formation In high-pressure anaerobic systems: The effect of elevated pCO2 on the degradation of glucose and glycerol by a mixed culture

Anurag Arun Direct Nanofiltration of Surface Water: Investigating the fouling and rejection performance of low MWCO hollow fiber nanofiltration membranes

Camille Mondini Ecological Engineering of Acidogenic and Photoorganoheterotrophic Microbial Metabo-lisms to Valorise Cheese Whey

Julia Mc Gregor In Search of Sun: Solar Pretreatment to enhance the Biomethane Potential of Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) Fibres

Noor Holland Using the water pinch analysis to optimize the water network of a brewery and its neighbours to achieve circularity: Can the process effluent of a brewery be used to grow oranges?

Laurens van den Bos

Quantifying the effects of anthropogenic heat sources on the water temperature in the drinking water distribution system

Nicole van Jaarsveld

Phosphate Removal from Wastewater by Mineral Wool Filters

Fabian Bodenlenz

Freeing Ammonia: Anaerobic degradability of proteins in the presence of multiple carbon sources

Stelios Flambouris

Iron and arsenic removal in triple- and single-bed filters: The effect of pH, filtration velocity and filtrate recirculation

Names Subject

Margot Haitsma Mulier

Water Energy Food nexus: 3 Cases on Resource Demand of Urban Farming and Resource Availability in Urban Waters in Amsterdam and Boston

Esmée Mulder Droughts and Decisions: Pastoralism, Decision Junctures and Rain Forecasting

Thijs van Esch Estimating snow cover decline using the RSLE in Google Earth Engine: A Caucasus case study

Ruben van Dijk Unraveling decision-making in irrigated farming in Malawi

Markus Pleij The design of an early warning system for floods in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania: A case study for the local bus company

Valerie Demetriades

Relating groundwater heads to stream discharge by using machine learning techniques: A case study in subcatchment Chaamse Beken

Qiaodan Liu Spatiotemporal snow pattern in the Qilian Mountains from 2001 to 2018

Loulou Zaat Below the surface: A laboratorial research to the vertical distribution of buoyant plastics in rivers

Daan Rooze Borrowed Land: Reframing the relation between flood and drought adaptation efforts with the built environment in New Orleans

Ileen Streefkerk Linking Drought Forecast Information to Smallholder Farmer’s Agricultural Strategies and Local Knowledge in Southern Malawi

Nikiforos Koliolios

Investigating the use of C-band phase clo-sure data to produce soil moisture maps

Fransje van Oorschot

The hydrologically active rootzone in climate models

Gijs van den Munckhof

Forecasting river discharge using machine learning methods: with application to the Geul and Rur river

Nicael Jooste Investigating the MetOp ASCAT vegetation parameters

Sylvia van Doorn

The underlying processes of evaporative changes: within the transition period in the Miombo Woodlands, Mpika, Zambia in 2018

Camille Fong Leveraging Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting in Chennai, India

EE WM

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online graduationDaniël Huisman:Finally the day I was looking forward to for such a long time was there: Friday 27 March 2020, the day of my MSc graduation. My MSc thesis was finished, the presentation was prepared, family, friends & fellow students were invited, the graduation drink was planned, and a week of skiing in the French Alps was booked; what could possibly go wrong? That is how I imagined it at least, until COVID-19 arrived in Europe. Two weeks before my graduation, Thursday 12 March, the Dutch government and consequently the TU Delft announced an expansion of measures against the spread of the coronavirus. Initially it seemed that a public defence was still possible, but knowing that this new virus was highly transmissible I knew I had to prepare myself for an adverse scenario. As time passed, measures were becoming stricter and the chances for a public MSc defence diminished. Meanwhile, I lost a lot of time thinking of a reasonable solution for this situation and figuring out what was still allowed. In the end, a MSc defence via a Skype-connection appeared inevitable. As the internet connection at my home was not reliable enough for such a Skype-meeting, I had to present and defend my MSc thesis work in a meeting room at the faculty of CEG while sitting in front of my laptop. Even though no one was physically present, it was encouraging knowing that besides the assessment committee, family and friends were attending my MSc defence via Skype as well. Despite some minor technical issues, I am happy to conclude that I was able to successfully defend my MSc thesis. Afterwards, it was really nice to be surprised and welcomed home by my girlfriend, parents and roommates with champagne, pie and decorations, which made this day unforgettable. Additionally, I am very thankful for receiving a compilation of video messages from everyone who was personally invited, which made this an even more memorable day. So, even though this day was different than I initially had in mind, I am very satisfied with how it all worked out.

Board 66 sponsored a new graduation wall infront of which the official graduation procedures will take place and our students can take nice pictures

as a memory of this special day.

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management-wise. Over the years, her po-sitions shifted more towards financial and managerial roles, and she felt the desire to return to something more technical. That is when she found out about the Delft Technology Fellowship, a TU Delft program where each year a woman is invited to apply to TU Delft for a position of an associate, assistant or full professor. A start-up grant is offered, as well as a five-year position. Returning to TU Delft was some-thing Femke had already been considering, but no open positions here seemed to fit her background. That changed when she came across the Delft Tech-nology Fellowship and she was free to define her own

I n t e r v i e w

Dr. Ir. F.C. (Femke) Vossepoel is no stranger to TU Delft, having originally started her studies here herself at the faculty of Aerospace Engineering, where she graduated in 1995. Back in those days there were hardly any female students around, only 20 in the original group of 300. Upon graduating, she pursued getting her PhD, which she did with the Satellites Dynamics research group. She continued her re-search in Washington DC and Paris and ended up at Utrecht University., which had taught her a lot about the position of scientists in academia. After this she had a position in industry to look at problems from a multitude of perspectives: economic, logistical, and

Is the gender balance of TU Delft good enough to represent

society?Interview with Dr. Ir. Femke Vossepoel, Chair of DEWIS

Interviewed by Katharina Wilbrand & Cato van Meurs

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Wednesday morning, 10:30hWomen in science and technology. Let’s imagine we go to campus, find our way to the Civil Engineering and Geosciences building and take the stairs to the fourth floor on a Wednesday morning around 10:30 – time for coffee I would say! But hey…there is a long queue at the coffee corner in front of the Dispuut Of-fice in 4.74, and a bunch of people apparently have the same idea of getting a cookie and free coffee. We observe a mix of female and male students, PhDs and staff from Water Management and Sanitary En-

gineering. The cookie-fruity breaks seem to attract all genders equally to chat about the latest news, the difficult assignment from the morning lecture, or the borrel last night. So, by the looks of it, we don’t seem to have a problem with gender inequality in civil engi-neering or, more broadly, at TU Delft? Let’s now talk to Femke, the current Chair of DEWIS, and learn from her experience.

What’s the problem?By illustrating her general observations, Femke ex-plains us why gender questions are such a hot topic. When we look at men and women in general, there are some behaviours and patterns of thinking that are, generally speaking, more common for women and others that are more likely for men. For females it is typical to assume they are not good enough or suitable for a position or a new task. Let’s imagine there is a vacancy that sounds pretty interesting to you, until you read about the requirements: five pre-requisites regarding your background and soft skills that are highly recommended to bring along when applying for this position.

Men think: ‘Great, I fulfil three of the prerequisites. I will apply and convince the committee, there is a way to compensate for the lacking qualifications.’

However, a typical female train of thought is, ‘This sounds so great!...But wait…oh I need to bring this (yeah I maybe comply by 70%), and also this (check, nice!). But the last two conditions I can never fulfil. No, they are looking for someone else. There are so many more people who probably fit this position much better than I do and how could I convince them if I don’t satisfy all the requirements?’

This surely doesn’t apply to all women and men. However, DEWIS’s experience shows that not only related to the path into a higher or new position, women tend to see obstacles in their way. It is also very common that women do not speak up for their rights when they encounter themselves in an uncom-fortable or disadvantageous situation. In addition, there is a lack of awareness regarding these difficul-ties that women face. According to her experience, Femke found that especially in middle management, people are not aware of these difficulties and how people in leadership positions can influence that.

You may recognize an aspect of Delft’s culture: Peo-ple often say, ‘But, it has always been like this.’ - meaning we don’t need to change anything. So we asked Femke why we do need to change and what would be the advantage of having more women around in a technological environment.

“In order to reach more gender di-versity you need to make people aware that they may have certain concepts in

their heads“

area of research. During her interview for the associ-ate professorship, she was asked about her ideas on diversity and gender balance. Having been an active member of GAIA, the Network for Female Geoscien-tists in the Netherlands, she was quite outspoken on these subjects. Shortly after being hired at TU Delft she joined DEWIS, where she later became Chair.

DEWIS stands for Delft Women in Science, and was founded in 2006 in collaboration with the Executive Board of TU Delft to increase gender diversity and the appeal of TU Delft for women. Inspiring and sup-porting women in their personal, professional and scientific career, DEWIS is also a network for wom-en in the scientific community to make them feel at home in Delft.

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Why do we need more women in science and technology?At TU Delft, we all study or work because we be-lieve that our education and research will have an im-pact on society and on our life in some way. Femke believes further that a university should be a good representation of this society in terms of staff and students and in the various sub-entities like depart-ments or research groups:

“At the moment, the overall picture shows that TU Delft has a population of roughly 30% women and 70% men. But in society this is more or less a 50/50 distribution, isn’t it?”

Now you might say the engineering field for example is a male-dominated area, so the student numbers at TU Delft are a fair representation of that. However, we can see here that the problem is not restricted to the educational environment but pervades our working

life as well. DEWIS aims to improve this imbalance. As research shows that divers teams are more inno-vative and creative, their goal is to advocate for more diversity and let society benefit from the resulting cre-ativity. The engineering field could benefit, especially from soft skills which are – generally speaking – more often better utilized by women, like the ability to con-nect people and the higher awareness of and care for societal and environmental issues.

“Ultimately, DEWIS aims to give women who enjoy technical thinking opportunities to take the next step, and offers them a network to connect and support each other.”

Femke, TU Delft and DEWISFemke already knows TU Delft for quite some time: She received her MSc in 1995 and finished her PhD in 1999 at the faculty of Aerospace Engineering.

“We started with 20 girls in a group of 300, of which 5 remained in a group of 100 when I finished. I was the only girl, and perhaps one of the first female students to work in the satellite dynamics group. People didn’t have laptops back then like we do now, so we had a computer room. I remember that in that computer room there were pinups of Playboy magazines on the wall, and when I came there to do my graduate proj-ect, they were taken off the wall.

Just to give you an impression of how male-dominat-ed the culture was when I was a student there. But at the same time, I felt very much at home, and I still feel at home in this male-dominated environment.”

Comparing TU Delft from 30 years ago with TU Delft now, Femke sees a transformation to a more diverse and international orientation, likely enabled through the open and honest culture one can find here. The past improvements give rise to new challenges like

the topic of gender balance, and confidence to achieve them. The main change, that DEWIS aims to realise on the long term, is to attract more women to TU Delft. To achieve this, DEWIS specifically works towards more women in leadership positions:

“If you look at the Executive Boards (one woman out of three) and Advisory Boards (two women out of five), they have a fair representation of women. But if you look at the eight Deans, we currently only have two female Deans since last year October: Ena Voûte is Dean of Industrial Design and Aukje Hassoldt is Dean of Technology, Policy and Management. If you look at the department heads, there are none. There are female section heads within civil engineering, I know of at least one and perhaps we have more, but I think we could have far more women in positions like that.”

“At the moment, the overall picture shows that TU Delft has a popula-tion of roughly 30% women and 70% men. But in society this is more or

less a 50/50 distribution, isn’t it? “

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DEWIS knows that changes of these dimensions need not only time but also require the effort and col-laboration of many people in different layers of organ-isations. We asked Femke how DEWIS interacts with our faculty of Civil Engineering.

DEWIS and Civil Engineering The goals of DEWIS further include to make the im-age of women in engineering more visible. To attract more women towards studying engineering, it is im-portant to give a clear picture of how engineers work. In communication with the faculty, DEWIS directs at-tention to role models for female students.

“The discussions with the Dean Jan-Dirk Jansen, who is very active towards increasing the percent-age of females within the faculty, are about how to increase the number of women in the Faculty and sometimes about individual cases.”

It becomes very interesting when it is about implic-it biases. The selection and recruitment of new staff lies with a significant part in the hands of HR. Here, DEWIS works together with HR to raise awareness on how committee members tend to select candi-dates who are very much like themselves, because that might imply good collaboration:

“If TU Delft is a male-dominated environment and staff is not aware of implicit bias, then there is a risk that you would have only men within TU Delft. In or-der to break that you need to make people aware that they may have certain presumptions in their heads.”

Biases are not only found in recruitment. It might seem very perfectionist to ask for unbiased exam questions, but it can unconsciously train our brain to develop stereotypes of, e.g., typical male and female positions:

“We had a Tilburg Professor, Henriette Prast, com-ing over to lecture about how biased exams can be. She looked into all the economic examination at high schools - typically, the questions are about peo-ple. The study was to find out what the positions of women were, and what the positions of men were. It was startling. All the directors were men, and all the people doing the shopping were women. Quite revealing.”

Next to lectures, DEWIS organises other workshops for the staff. To reveal how sexual harassment is a gradual process and how personal boundaries get crossed unnoticed, DEWIS invited a theatre group last summer to a meeting of the Executive Commit-tee, the Deans, and the Department heads. Het Ac-teursgenootschap (The Dutch Actors Society) was

showing the play The Learning Curve to reveal how relations of power can eventually lead into unwant-ed behaviour. Initially good intentions and inoffensive behaviour of supervisors can evolve into critical situ-ations with negative impacts on young researchers. The play uses an interactive approach to encourage critical and creative thinking on how to address these problems individually as well as for the working envi-ronment:

“There’s a trailer on their website (follow the QR-code below), and I encourage you to watch it. You can see how little by little people move into situations that are really not the way they should be. In this case, the supervisor really has some power over the student. But there are also situations where people are on the same level, and people say things that are inappro-priate.”

Do quotas work?“It’s a bit double, because as a woman, I also don’t like to be selected because of being a woman. But at the same time, I think that by imposing a quota, even if it’s just temporary, you can stimulate women to enter positions where they have influence, where they can make choices, and that will eventually lead to choices being made in a more balanced way. You should be careful imposing very hard quota, but something temporary measures can definitely work.

In Delft we have the Delft Technology Fellowship. It’s not a very aggressive way of reaching a target, but it has certainly stimulated a lot of woman to come to TU Delft. And these are women who have worked elsewhere, so you really bring in some fresh blood and that’s very important. Are you familiar with the Delft Technology Fellowship?

The Delft Technology Fellowship was granted every year. As of 2020 TU Delft wants to grant it every year. So women who currently do not work for TU Delft, can become an associate, assistant or full professor. They get a start-up grant to do research during a five-year position, which in many cases gets extended to a permanent contract. In 2016 I wrote a proposal for this fellowship and that’s how I changed jobs to join TU Delft. And without the fellowship opportunity, I could still have applied for an academic position, but I would have been less inclined to do so. I would more easily have thought ‘well, probably they have someone lined up already.’ It feels less open without the fellowship, so due to that opportunity I felt invited to come and apply.”

Curious about the Delft Technology Fellowship? Then follow the QR-code below the interview. But, to go on with the interview, there is another approach

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men (and women!) can do more often.”

Have a look at www.dewis.tudelft.nl to get to know more about the work of DEWIS and to find interesting statistics about how many women are at each fac-ulty or among the students. Or go online for a virtu-al coffee&connect with DEWIS and to keep yourself updated on upcoming events. You might find some inspiration If you feel like something should change. For now as well as for later, to men as much as to women:

“Be true to yourself, believe in your strengths, be who you are. It’s good to be open, transparent and

to speak up!”

Dr. Ir. Femke Vossepoel

where we can personally help to support women.

As a male, I am not affected by this…You are! Good news for our male colleagues, Femke revealed some ideas how you can get actively involved in cre-ating a more diverse, creative, and fun working and learning environment, and help to create a better rep-resentation of society within our field:

“Yes, I think men have a crucial role to promote di-versity. I often get this question from men: ‘I want to have a more diverse environment, what is it that I can

Acteursgenootschap TrailerImplicit Bias: self-test

“Be true to yourself, believe in your strengths, be who you are. It’s good to be open, transparent and to speak

up! “do to achieve that?’.

There are always situations where women observe that something is not quite right, or not done with-in a very fair manner. But they don’t always want to speak up, because then it’s again the women being self-promoting, or coming up for their own rights. So it really helps if these men that want to have a more diverse world talk to woman and they find out what’s going on and where possible they speak up on be-half of those women, that’s a very important role men could play.

Also, they can act as a ‘sponsor’ and as a more se-nior person can encourage a more junior person to take a certain step. What I’ve observed is that a lot of women feel that they’re not good enough to do something. here it would really help if someone told

them, ‘hey, you should try this and I think you’re good enough’. If I look throughout my career, at a num-ber of moments people around me, both men and women, have told me ‘hey Femke, perhaps you can try to do that’. It’s just that little push that men can sometimes give a woman in order to encourage her to take a step that she perhaps wouldn’t have the confidence to take herself.

And again, and that’s the main thing, just making the little inequalities visible and being open about them and talking about them. That’s the third thing I think

Delft Technology Fellowship

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W i t t e v e e n + B o s

E v e l i e n M a r t e n scalculating the way to improved clean water access

Hi, my name is Evelien Martens and I work at Witteveen+Bos. After my graduation from the TU Delft Water Management master 2.5 years ago, I started as civil project engineer in the drinking water and wastewater sector. The work is diverse and chal-lenging, combining technical and social skills to find solutions for practical challenges - and I’m having a good time!

My work at Witteveen+BosWitteveen+Bos is an engineering and consultancy firm that advises and helps clients all over the world in resolving today’s complex challenges. With a net-work of 21 offices in 11 countries we work with 1,200 engineers and consultants on improving the human environment. Every year we complete some 4,000 projects in the fields of infrastructure, water, the envi-ronment and construction. In these projects our aim is to maximize value creation, which means sustain-able solutions for society, maximum value for clients and opportunities for talent development of employ-ees. Together with our stakeholders we contribute to social, ecological and economic progress, with the sustainable development goals of the United Nations serving as an inspirational guideline.

At Witteveen+Bos I have mainly been working on drinking water supply projects and hydraulic mod-elling, that is the design of and calculations on water networks. An example is a project on the water supply in the province of Groningen: which adjustments can and have to be made in the drinking water network to ensure water supply to clients, now and in the future? Projects often go beyond the Dutch borders. I have been working on concept designs for new connec-tions to the drinking water network in Oman and on the modelling of water networks together with staff of local water districts in the Philippines. Projects relat-ed to wastewater are part of my work as well. In Lim-burg I do hydraulic calculations on the water board’s pressurized pipe systems to come to well-founded WWTP intake agreements with municipalities. Be-

sides modelling and calculations, I get the chance to develop myself in project management: at the mo-ment I am involved in the project management for a new drinking water treatment plant in Drenthe and for the replacement of culverts in North Holland.

Engineering: people’s workWhat makes my work at Witteveen+Bos so much fun? The interesting projects Witteveen+Bos has to offer as one of the bigger engineering and consultan-cy firms, working together with colleagues on prac-tical challenges (often in junior-senior combinations), the trust and responsibility that has been given to me from the beginning and the chances to work for var-ious clients in various cultures. From water boards and drinking water companies in all corners of the Netherlands to countries all over the world. Moreover, Witteveen+Bos gives me the possibility to keep on learning, for example through courses on technical content and soft skills. I am continuously challenged to develop myself both inside and outside my field of technical expertise.

Equally important for me is the informal atmosphere. Although Witteveen+Bos is a big company, it does not always feel that way because the company is or-ganized in smaller groups of immediate colleagues. Colleagues are committed and take pleasure from their work. We regularly undertake activities together, also outside of working hours - either organized by ourselves or by Witteveen+Bos as a company (such as sport and cultural events). With an average age of 37, Witteveen+Bos is a young organization. A start-ers programme and ‘NeWBie’ activities especially for new employees make sure you get to know other (young) professionals from outside your own office and business line. And regarding women in science and technology: about 31% of the employees is female, so nothing to worry about when you have studied in Delft! Are you interested in working at Wit-teveen+Bos? Have a look at our website www.witteveenbos.com.

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A r c a d i s

Wo r l d Wa t e r D a y 2 0 2 0 Water and the Cl imate Cr is is

22 March 2020 was international World Water Day, an opportunity to reflect on the importance of water for all life on the planet and what we all need to do to make sure we can live in harmony with water.

This year’s focus is on the relationship between water, climate change and how the two are inextrica-bly intertwined. At Arcadis, we have decades of experience in helping clients adapt to the water-re-lated aspects of climate change, driven by our passion for improving quality of life. To learn more about all of this, Grant Sprick, Global Sustainability Director, spoke with Arcadis’ Global Leader of Resilience and Water Management, Piet Dircke. Piet has more than 35 years of experience in water management and has worked on major water resilience projects all over the world. Grant began by

asking what Piet sees as the connection between climate change and water.

Piet: For me, the connection between climate change and water is most evident in cities. As a result of urbanization, it’s especially important that our cities become water resilient. But this is no easy task, be-cause it’s quite expensive to implement development projects in cities and, often, financing is limited. The key is creating shared value solutions that not only protect people from the effects of climate change but also create economic benefits for the city, which will attract investors. We specialize at this at Arcadis.

This year’s World Water Day is focused on cli-mate change, but we cannot ignore the current COVID-19 pandemic. What are your thoughts on the role of water in addressing this crisis?

This pandemic teaches us that in order to safeguard our public health, we need to make our critical infra-structure more resilient against the impacts of shocks and stresses. The COVID-19 outbreak is an example

of an unexpected shock. Providing clean and safe water is one of the most critical and valuable, but also vulnerable elements of critical infrastructure. During this crisis, more than ever, we rely on the business continuity of our public and private water utilities. We need them to provide undisrupted service, no matter what. Just think of how much worse this crisis would be if we did not have clean water, to wash our hands. Operations and maintenance readiness are now key.

Over the course of your career what signs have you seen that the climate is changing and how has this affected cities’ and businesses’-built assets?

I have seen dramatic signs that the climate is chang-ing, in particular when I think about living conditions for inhabitants of large, low-lying cities on Earth. These people are dealing with much more frequent and devastating flooding, the result of a rising sea-level

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and the higher incidence of storms. Just in recent memory, disastrous hurricanes hit New Orleans, New York City, and Houston in the US.

Protecting coastal cities from extreme storms and flooding has been a significant part of your work over the years. What are some examples of cities that stand out in your mind for taking effective action to become more water resilient?

Investing in becoming more water resilient pays off. The City of Rotterdam’s approach to water resilien-cy includes solutions such as multi-functional flood protection, a floating water pavilion and a reservoir catchment system. Also, in a neighborhood called ZOHO, the city incorporated social benefits for the community into the water resilience measures. In-vestments like these have helped the city, which part-ly sits seven meters below sea level, become one

of the best protected places on Earth, with a thriv-ing economy and an attractive, functional cityscape. Lonely Planet, the largest travel guide publisher in the world, recently recognized Rotterdam as one of the top global city destinations, which adds another layer to sustaining the local economy.

Also, the City of New York has worked hard in recent years, after being hit by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, to become more water resilient. In reaction to the storm, in 2013, Mayor Michael Bloomberg released a plan called “A Stronger, More Resilient New York”. This multi-layered plan aims at reducing impacts when-ever possible and improving the capacity of the city to bounce back from disruptions. In addition to pro-viding flood protection for the city as a whole, New York has safeguarded public services, by making not only their most critical public infrastructure, like public transport, tunnels, water, electricity but also hospitals and other public assets resilient. Addition-ally, NYC businesses are being challenged to invest in protecting their business continuity.

Can you talk about some of the work Arcadis has done to improve quality of life in water-stressed regions?

Water scarcity is a serious climate-related global is-sue. The fast-growing City of Doha, the capital of Qatar, faces limited water resources, which creates a big challenge. Arcadis is helping build the first-of-its-kind mega reservoir project. This will allow Doha to store 15 million cubic meters of potable water, in-creasing the city’s water supply security from two to seven days. The mega reservoirs will be the largest of their kind in the world. With a full week of water secu-rity, Doha’s citizens and businesses will have a more efficient, secure and resilient supply for the future.

What does climate change mean for the way we need to think about water as a resource as well as force of nature?

Climate change means we have to become more water conscious, aware of the value of water, and of how vulnerable all life is because of climate-related issues with water. We will have to learn to live better with water and understand that water is our friend but also at times our enemy. We must become more water resilient, and understand the value of resilience, in order to create the willingness to invest in it. We will all be challenged to look at what we do daily and ask ourselves if we can find less wasteful and more water resilient ways to do them.

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S t u d e n t P r o j e c t

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River Expedition M y a n m a r

fire I was continuing my challenges - every year. Still, I was missing something. I wanted to give the things I do purpose. I started to organize charity-adventures and challenges: I have cycled 550 km non-stop from Passau to Budapest, hiked 250km from Freising to the Bodensee and cycled 1000km whilst collecting and donating over 6000 Euros to non-profit organ-isations.

Besides these adventures I was urging to challenge myself mentally. I found this challenge in my studies - science and engineering. With all this on my mind I was studying but also continuing my adventures hoping to be able to eventually combine both.

This dream finally came true by setting up the “Chind-win River Expedition”. For this expedition I hiked 500km along the Chindwin River – from Kalay to Magway- whilst taking sedimentation and water quality samples and giving several talks and presen-tations with local universities and stakeholders. But why is that important?

The Ayeyarwady and Chindwin river can be consid-ered as the back-bone of the country: being of vital importance for irrigation water, for drinking water, for fishing and with important ecological function.

The Chindwin River Expedition. For me this project is more than just research or a trip abroad. It is something I have worked for and dreamt of for a long time. I envisioned myself combining my biggest

passions: Adventure and Science. But how do you fit those together?

Let’s start at the beginning. Why do I like this any-way? I encountered my first adventure when I was 19. I just saved up enough money to afford my first trip and I went to Australia and New Zealand. Back then I was young, reckless, curious and actually not thinking much about serious consequences. This led me to my first big adventure as my car broke down in the middle of nowhere and I had to hitch-hike 2000km through the outback of Australia. Soon after I was running low in money and decided to cycle through New Zealand – by myself, without any gear, smartphone and not even a tent.

I am telling this because it changed me. It changed my perspective of life and it still does. These particular adventures gave me a glimpse of a person I have not seen before. They gave me the opportunity to explore myself in a way nothing else could. They showed me how it feels to be lonely, lost, excited, anxious and free. They taught me to be independent and trust my instincts.

From this time on I was hooked, and I could not imagine doing anything else in my life than going on crazy, unique and remote adventures. It became who I am and what I believe in. This side I have found in the outback of Australia is still there, sitting in my body with an unquenchable thirst. Driven by this

Written by: Manuel Huber

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At the same time, it is extensively influenced by mine waste disposal, industry discharge, energy production, urban waste water, agriculture pollutants and the like. Unfortunately, data on the water quality of the Chindwin are rather scarce and no sampling has ever been carried out on high spatial resolution.

Hiking the whole length gives the opportunity to take measurements at the most remote places and tribu-taries, and it allows to connect with the communities living along the river.

Now that I am back from this trip I am reflecting on what has happened. It was a crazy expedition and covered all the subjects and challenges I have set out. Walking this long distance in a foreign, unknown country was definitely a scary challenge. I remem-ber sitting the day before the start in my hotel room doubting and overthinking every possible scenario. However, my previous adventures helped me to keep the trust in myself. The day before the start a local student decided to join my adventure, which was absolutely amazing. His name is Phyo Wai Thu, a 25-year-old Civil Engineer student with a similar urge for adventure.

Besides the beautiful nature, amazing food and hospitable people, we were also facing wild dogs, hiking through snake infested areas, crossing harsh terrainl,suffering from 36°C average temperatures, food poisoning and dehydration. All this didn’t matter as I knew it is part of the experience and I am end-lessly grateful for every little piece of happiness and pain I have felt.

When talking about science and engineering cre-ativity and curiosity are the most fundamental ingredients to find solutions and innovations. This does not only cover academia, it reaches down to what we are and how we live our life. This project embodied, for me, what science can look like by igniting the curiosity to explore and to truly under-stand the context. Hiking 500km along the Chindwin and doing water quality measurements was just one part of it. The others were to connect, understand and observe the people but also to gain new insights and share knowledge. In the end we are all here to inspire – we just need to be curious enough to listen.

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E v i d e s

E v i d e s I n d u s t r i e w a t e r Researc h ing i nnova t i ve w ays to r euse w as tewate r

As part of Evides Waterbedrijf, the Dutch drinking water company, Evides Industriewater has been a reliable and inventive water partner for the industrial sector for nearly 50 years. Evides Industriewater supplies nearly 150 mil-lion m3 of process water each year (of which 20 million m3 through reuse solutions) and treats a similar quantity of wastewater. These services are provided through almost 90 facilities, which are built, owned and operated by Evides Industriewater throughout Northwestern Europe. In this short article we’ll take a look at wastewater reuse

and a particular part of the research activities of Evides Industriewater.

Wastewater reuse is the practice of separating contaminants from water allowing the water to be used again. Reuse techniques are develop-ing around the world in response to the growing challenge of water scarcity. Wastewater reuse is therefore expected to form a growing part of water suppliers’ water management strategies in years ahead. Wastewater of all kinds can be cleaned up for use again, whether as drinking water, for irrigat-ing crops or in industrial processes.

Membrane technologies are most commonly used to treat wastewater for reuse. The method usual-ly comprises treatment steps that are added after the existing wastewater treatment process. When treated wastewater comes out of the plant for re-use it normally goes through the treatment steps of either ultrafiltration and then reverse osmosis (UF-RO), or dissolved air flotation then RO (DAF-RO). If the wastewater treatment plant employs a membrane bioreactor (MBR) system - and is not a conventional plant with final clarifiers - the water can be treated directly by RO.

Evides Industriewater has also been trialing elec-trocoagulation as part of the NEREUS research project, which is looking for alternatives to the well known biological treatment schemes used in many wastewater treatment plants. The research is try-ing out a number of treatment concepts including a sieve to remove coarse material, potentially pro-ducing cellulose as by-product. It’s looking at elec-trocoagulation to remove phosphorus and sludge (organics and chemical oxygen demand [COD]). The sludge material removed can be digested for biogas production and phosphorus can be recov-ered. It’s also trialing nanofiltration, with the aim to remove calcium, magnesium and remaining COD.

Finally, RO to produce demin water and from whose concentrate ammonium (NH4) can be recovered for reuse as fertiliser. The advanced treatment stage in a water reuse system is there to ensure that any pathogens, whether bacteria, fungi, protozoa, vi-ruses or worms, which made it through the earlier treatment steps are now removed almost entirely. Reverse osmosis (RO) is the best choice for ad-

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vanced treatment in the majority of cases. RO uses a high pressure pump to force water across the surface of an RO membrane leaving up to 95 per-cent of dissolved solids, including salts, in the re-ject stream. High quality permeate passes through the membrane. RO membrane technology is cur-rently mostly used for desalination in dry coastal regions producing drinking water from seawater.

However, use of RO in water recycling systems is growing. RO, when used for reuse, is typically cheaper than when it’s used for desalination. This is because the feed-water in a reuse plant typically has much lower salt content compared to seawater and because it has already been treated to a high standard before it reaches the RO membrane. The amount of pressure needed to force the permeate through the membrane is therefore lower in reuse compared to many, especially older, desalination plants. This lowers the energy requirement and therefore the operating cost.

The RO process produces demin water. If the prod-uct water is to be used for drinking or irrigation it must be remineralised. However, industrial cus-tomers often want demin water to feed their pro-cesses. A final disinfection step may also be used to kill off any persistent pathogens that may have made it through the RO membrane. This step is often an ultraviolet (UV) disinfection unit. They use UV light to kill microorganisms by physically de-stroying acids in them and disrupting their deoxy-ribonucleic (DNA).

Evides Industriewater has already successful-ly harvested water, energy, nitrogen, phosphorus and cellulose from municipal wastewater. While technically all these resources can be recovered, the challenge is to recover them in a form that is attractive to a commercial market. The company now converts recovered cellulose for use in its own wastewater treatment plants, thereby reducing the amount of chemicals it must buy.

Further, Evides’ NEREUS project is exploring in-novative technologies for recovering water, ener-gy, cellulose, nitrogen and phosphorus. The goal is to create recovery products with a market value, while using as little energy and chemicals as possi-ble in the technologies.

Interested in more information on this particular project? Take a look at our website www.nere-us-project.eu.

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How do you experience the role of women in science and technology?Contradictory. Going by the Encyclopaedia Britan-nica definition, a role is “the behaviour expected of an individual who occupies a given social position or status”. In my view the main role of any STEM pro-fessional is to display behaviour that is in line with ful-filling their professional position or status, regardless of gender. But of course gender stereotypes and so-cietal roles exist and these overlap with professional roles. What do you do if the behavioural expecta-tions for your professional role and your gender role do not match? Then you face a dilemma between fulfilling the professional expectations or the gender expectations or not fulfilling any expectations at all. To me, this is a quite common experience of women in STEM.

Of course there are no hard and fast roles neither for being a STEM professional nor for being a wom-en. But there are social norms and stereotypes with regard to what is considered normal for someone with certain attributes. There is also a penalty for not respecting them. Gender is just one attribute; oth-ers include age, race, physical and mental ability, religion, social class, sexual orientation, citizenship and so forth. I am mentioning all these because I see a number of parallels between the reported experi-ences of women in STEM as a minority in terms of gender and other minorities. We often underestimate how powerful social norms are in shaping how we as humans behave, what we value or don’t, the choices we make and what we consider acceptable for oth-ers and ourselves.

A r t i c l e - S t a f f M e m b e r

When invited to write this reflection piece, I was asked to address three questions concerning my experience as a women in science and technology. Let me answer these one at a time in an imaginary interview with myself

and close with a personal reflection.

T h e B r e e z e

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To conclude, to me this is not about women roles in particular, it is about human behaviour, about in-groups and outgroups, majorities and minorities, and the social norms that apply in the environment. In my current environment, I am part of the majority on a number of attributes. Most of the time I feel totally normal and welcome as a woman, without gender being a hurdle as it is sometimes portrayed. There are situations, however, things do not match. That is when there is friction, a shale aftertaste, if not a feeling of insufficiency and alienation.

Did your experiences differ across countries?Yes. I really enjoyed working in different countries. In my view, these experiences cannot be explained by national culture only. That would be too simple. There is always a combination of aspects that play a role. Overall, I feel that there are a lot of commonalities between my experienc-es as a woman in STEM across countries. The differences consist more in their combination and degree, next to some local peculiarities. This might have to do with whether professional re-lationships and private relationships are sepa-rated or not and in how far it is accepted that men and women with-out a bloodline or wed-lock interact. Also, the degree to which status and power matter in social life and in how far these are linked to age, profes-sional position, social class and gender. Lastly, the degree to which assertiveness, independence and competition are appreciated especially for the dif-ferent genders. The challenge then often was how to find out what matters as far as I am concerned so that I could adapt sufficiently to be accepted in a professional environment. I admit, sometimes this felt like having to throw part of my identity or core values over board. Other times it was a discovery of a new part of myself. There is not enough space to really give justice to these experiences without stereotyp-ing, so I’ll simply leave it at that.

Does being a woman affect you in your work?Gender matters. I would be a different person and perhaps in a different position had I been born or so-cialized as a male, if not adopted a different gender identity. I am not going to say that the difficulties of being a women in STEM do not exist. I guess what affects me most in this regard is not the substance of these difficulties, but that despite all the evidence

many people still deny their existence or downplay the consequences for STEM. It can be discussed whether this is down to conscious intentions, moral hazard, or a genuine inability to perceive it. I am in-clined to say that all apply. From my experience with-in my immediate TU Delft environment, the last might be the most pervasive.

I like to illustrate this by a comparison with cycling with a little breeze. If you have a breeze slightly push-ing from the back, you will usually still need to pedal to move forward. Since there will be wind in your face from the forward movement, you will most likely not notice the breeze unless you stop and pay conscious attention. If the breeze is coming from the front, you will also feel a wind in your face, whether you no-tice or not the breeze. After a long distance, in both

you might feel a bit tired and report feeling a wind in their face. That makes it very easy to say that there was no difference in conditions and that the different times spent are down to individual ability. When the majority is in the “breeze from the back” condition, it will be hard to make a case for those in the “breeze from the front” condition, es-pecially if not all of those noticed the breeze. Not noticing the breeze how-

ever does not mean it does not exist after all.

In general, I do not mind a little breeze and I very much feel a sense of belonging in my profession. Working in science and technology has allowed me to do more of the things that I like than I could have hoped for. Concerning the little breeze: effort and persistence help, as does experience in figuring out how to navi-gate the terrain and avoid the gusts. These days, be-ing a women in STEM sometimes also attracts some tailwind, as specific measures to support women are put in place. This quite understandably creates jeal-ousy and a sense of unfairness for those who cannot see that they are already enjoying the tailwind. Those keeping up despite the breeze from the front might fear that their outstanding performance will be at-tributed to the help, not their hard work. So a majority will likely be unhappy with such measures, especially if what they want is fair conditions for all. I hope that in a few years from now, these tailwind boosters may not be necessary anymore as the breeze will blow in more diverse directions so that everybody can bene-fit from it from time to time.

“Effort and persistence help, as does experience in figur-ing out how to navigate the terrain and avoid the gusts “

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S u r v i v i n g C O V I D - 1 9

Quarantine in 3 words?

Life without a bar-ber or hairdresser?

Grow a Viking cut. - Tijmen

We are currently negotiating who will shave who. We already chose the fade cut we want.

- Pierrick

I was fortunate enough to get a haircut the day NL went into quarantine. But I am using this

time to grow a moustache. - Koen

Bald is beautiful! - Wim

Long is the new short baby. - Ron

I don’t have my hair cut! Let them grow for warmth! - Alexandra

I will soon find out if my roommate’s barber skills are trustworthy. - Rob

Well I believe that it is okay to look a bit home-less or unkept. Personally I don’t really have

anything to manage in this aspect. - Mystery Man

DIY haircut are in fashion this year! - Charlie

Missing. The. Dispuut. - Sander

Would not recommend. - Omar

Missing. The. Lab. - Widya

The worst experience. - Frank

Live, Laugh, Cough. - Haye

Annoying my roommates. - Pierrick

Increasingly more inefficient. - Ron

Lots of emails. - Erik

mama mama mama. - Lydia

New, desolate, digital. - Citra

Sweatpants, sports, cooking. - Renske

weird but sunny. - Charlie

weird but sunny. - Stijn

An introverts paradise. - Mystery Man

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Life without a bar-ber or hairdresser?

Three most imporantant things for surviving quarantine?

Music, the sun, motivation. - Omar

Oxygen, toilet paper, water. - Haye

Mental support, mental support, mental sup-port. - Widya

Exercise, food and flatmates. - Tiza

Chocolate, a balcony and a yoga mat. - Kirsten

My kids, music and a wifi-connection. - Lydia

Food, ICT, entertainment. - Erik

Food, internet, iPad. - Citra

Family, home, outdoor sport. - Riëlle

So how many ‘Quaran-T...’ words can you come up with?

Quaran-TAN, the sun is shining! - Sander

Fucking quarantintoxicated - Frank

Quaran-Tinder - Haye

Quaran-Tiza - Tiza

Quaran-Trying new recipes - Renske

Quaran-Takeoutdinner - Charlie

Quaran-Tellytime - Pierrick

Quaran-Tease - Rob

Quaran-Time for wine - LydiaQuarter bean - Erik

I miss the sixth floor ‘Qantine’ please give food - Ron

Quaran-Tarantino - Alexandra

Quaran-Tense - Citra

I had an aunt called aunt Tine she was married with my uncle Thieu, so Quaran-Thieu for me.

- Wim

Quarantini - Kirsten

Quaran-Tequila - Tijmen

Quaran-Thesis - Widya

Quaran-tidying - Koen

Quaran-teen - Mystery Man

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W o m e n i n H i s t o r y

T h e w o m e n b e h i n d t h e s c i e n c e Just like men, woman have also played a big role in contributing to the advance and development of science and technology. Take Marie Curie, for example, the exceptional woman behind the discovery of Polonium and Radium, who was also the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize. Lets meet ten other exceptional women who

dedicated their life to the sciences.

Caroline Herschel (German astronomer: 1750 – 1848)Known for her discovery of 14 new nebulas, 8 comets includ-ing the periodic comet 35P/Herschel–Rigollet, which bears her name, and added 561 new starts to Flamsteeds Atlas.

Mary Anning (English fossil hunter: 1799 – 1847)Known for her findings contribution to important changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life and the history of the Earth. She spent all her life searching the beaches of Lyme Regis (known as Jurassic Coast) for fossils.

Lisa Meitner (Austrian-Swedish physicist: 1878 – 1968)Known for her discovery of the nuclear fission by discovering that uranium splits in half and releasing some of its tremen-dous store of nuclear energy. She has an element honored for her, Meitnerium (Mt).

Barbara McClintock (American geneticist: 1902 – 1992)Known for discovery of mobile genetic elements. She proved that genetic elements can sometimes change position on a chromosome and that this causes nearby genes to become active or inactive.

Grace Murray Hopper (American Computer Scientist and US Navy Rear Admiral: 1906 – 1992)Known for her contributions to the development of computer languages. She popularized the idea of machine-indepen-dent programming languages, which then led to the develop-ment of COBOL, an early high-level programming language still in use today.

Dorothy Hodgkin (British chemist: 1910 – 1994)Known for her development of protein crystallography and determining the structure of insulin. She helped advancing the field of X-ray crystallography, which was the key to study and understand the three-dimensional structures of bio-chemical compounds. She becomes the second woman to receive the Order of Merit, and the third woman to win the

Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Joan Clarke (British cryptanalyst and numismatist:1917 – 1996)

Known for her work as a code-breaker at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. Her role in the Enigma proj-ect which reduced the need for bombes (electromechanical devices as used by British cryptologist to decipher Nazi Ger-many’s encrypted messages during World War II) earned her

awards and citations.

Katherine Johnson (American mathematician: 1918 – 2020)

Known for her calculation of the orbital mechanics as a NASA employee – a critical calculation to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights, the Apollo Moon landing program and the start of the Space Shuttle program. She earned a reputation for mastering the complex manual calculations and the space agency noted her as one of the

first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist.

Tu Youyou (Chinese pharmaceutical chemist: 1930 – Present)

Known for discovering artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin, used to treat malaria, which is a breakthrough in twenti-eth-century tropical medicine. Tu is the first Chinese Nobel laureate in the category of Physiology or Medicine and the first female citizen of the People’s Republic of China to re-

ceive a Nobel Prize in any category.

Jane Goodall (British primatologist and anthropologist: 1934 - Present)

Known for her work observing the behavior of Chimpanzee and challenging the two long-standing beliefs of that time: that only humans could construct and use tools, and that

chimpanzees are vegetarians.

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T i m e l i n e

1751 1850 1950 1970

1971 2000 2020

- Herschel was employed by King George III, making her the first woman to be paid for scientific work.

- Anning discovered the fossilized skel-eton of ichthyosaurus, dating back 200 million years, making it the first complete fossil of dinosaur.

- Anning discovered a complete long-necked Plesiosaurus skeleton.

- Anning discovered the partial skeleton of Pterodactylus macronyx (later renamed Dimorphodon macronyx).

- Herschel became the first woman who Received a Gold Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS).

- McClintock developed a staining tech-nique that allowed her to identify, examine and describes the individual chromosomes from maize.

- Meitner discovered that uranium was undergoing nuclear fission.

- Clarke became the only female practi-tioner of Banburismus, a cryptanalytic pro-cess developed by Alan Turing to decrypt German’s secret communication.

- Clarke was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

- Hodgkin first encountered vitamin B12 and started her analysis on it.

- Meitner was awarded the highest German order for scientist, the peace class of the Pour le Mérite, by the German President Theodor Heuss.

- Goodall began studying the Kasakela chimpanzee community in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania.

- Hodgkin was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for determining the complicat-ed structure of vitamin B12.

- Hopper was awarded the Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award for her contributions to the burgeoning com-puter industry as an engineering manager and originator of automatic programming system.

- Tu and her colleagues obtained the pure substance and named it qinghaosu or known as artemisinin, to treat Malaria.

- Tu synthesized dihydroartemisinin while wanting to confirm the carbonyl group in the artemisinin molecule.

- Hopper was the first American and the first woman of any na-tionality to be made a Distinguished Fellow of the British Comput-er Society for her contribution to the advancement of computing.

- McClintock was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of genetic transposition; the only woman to receive an unshared Nobel Prize in that category.

- Goodall was awarded as Commander of the Order of the British Empire, presented by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II; also awarded the National Geographic Society Hubbard Medal for distinction in Exploration, Discovery, and Research.

- The Royal Society included Anning in a list of the ten British women who have most influenced the history of science.

- Released of the film The Imitation Game, which tells the story of Alan Turing alongside Joan Clarke when they decrypted German intelligence messages for the British government during World War II.

- Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

- Tu was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (co-recipient) for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against malaria. - Hopper was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her accomplishments in the field of computer science.

- Released of film Hidden Figures which follows Johnson and two other African-American female scientists (Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson) and into the discrimination they faced working at the aerospace research agency during the 1950s and ‘60s.References

Kent, L. (2020, January 28). The heroines STEM: Ten women in science you should know. Retrieved from CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/27/world/women-in-science-you-should-know-scn/index.html

McNamara, A. (2019, May 17). 10 amazing women in science history you really should know about. Retrieved from BBC Science Focus Web site: https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/10-amazing-women-in-science-history-you-really-should-know-about/

Varley, G. (2018, October 8). The History of Women in Tech: 7 Influential Pioneers Everyone Should Know. Retrieved from Women in Technology: https://www.women-in-technology.com/wintec-blog/history-women-in-tech-influential-pioneers-everyone-should-know

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Voor 2,5 miljoen mensen en bedrijven in ons werkgebied Zuidwest-Nederland is de beschik- baarheid van betrouwbaar drinkwater de normaalste zaak van de wereld. Het leveren daarvan is voor de kleine 700 medewerkers van Evides Waterbedrijf elke dag weer een mooie uitdaging.

In Nederland zijn wij met ruim 160 miljoen m3 per jaar een van de sterkste spelers op het gebied van drinkwater en behoren we tot de top van industriewaterleveranciers. Het is dan ook niet verwonderlijk dat je bij Evides uit- dagingen treft in allerlei soorten techniek en op alle denkbare niveaus. Waar je ook begint, één ding staat als een paal boven water: Evides Waterbedrijf biedt je riante mogelijk- heden voor ontwikkeling en ontplooiing.

Kansen in techniekEr gaat heel wat werktuigbouw, procestech-niek, civiele techniek, economie en manage-ment om in water. Of je nu net afgestudeerd bent, of al enige jaren werkervaring hebt, bij Evides kun je in diverse richtingen aan de slag. Er liggen vooral volop kansen in de techniek, maar ook in de commercie, in staf-functies en op werkervaringsplaatsen zijn er mogelijkheden. Zelfs in het buitenland. Want ook daar zijn we actief. Dus als jij behalve een relevante opleiding of ervaring een ge-

zonde dosis ambitie meebrengt, dan vind je bij Evides meer dan genoeg perspectief.

Dynamische werkomgevingDoordat wij zowel drinkwater als industrie-water leveren, mag je er vanuit gaan dat in-novatie bij Evides met hoofletters wordt ge-schreven. Wij verdiepen ons voortdurend in vernieuwende technologieën om zowel onze waterkwaliteit als onze dienstverlening op het allerhoogste niveau te houden. Als je alleen al denkt aan het zuiveren van water, dan be-grijp je dat wij bij Evides inmiddels een hoop know-how en een schat aan ervaring in huis hebben. Wij bouwen bijvoorbeeld zelf speci-fieke installaties die het water bij de bron of op locatie zuiveren tot de gewenste kwaliteit. Tegelijkertijd scoren wij hoog op het gebied van efficiëncy. Dat resulteert in lage opera-tionele kosten en relatief lage drinkwater- tarieven. Werken bij Evides betekent werken in een dynamische én professionele om- geving waar je het beste uit jezelf kunt halen.

TraineeshipMet een technische HBO- of WO-opleiding kun je bij Evides kiezen voor een traineeship. Wij praten dan over een intensief leertraject van drie jaar, waarin we je meevoeren langs verschillende multidisciplinaire, (inter)nationa-le projecten. Als trainee krijg je zo een unieke kans om de verschillende aspecten van Evi-des te leren kennen en tegelijkertijd je inhou-delijke en persoonlijke kwaliteiten verder te ontwikkelen. Je wordt als het ware in het die-pe gegooid, waarbij je altijd kunt terugvallen op een interne coach. Ongekend uitdagend!

Dit alles maakt Evides Waterbedrijf als werkgever ongekend veelzijdig. Dat we daarbij een mooi salaris en goede arbeids-voorwaarden bieden, maakt het alleen nog maar aantrekkelijker. Ga er maar voor! Kijk voor meer informatie en actuele vacatures op www.evides.nl/werkenbij

2,5 miljoen consumenten en bedrijven 24/7

van betrouwbaar water voorzien. Ga

er maar voor.

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Voor 2,5 miljoen mensen en bedrijven in ons werkgebied Zuidwest-Nederland is de beschik- baarheid van betrouwbaar drinkwater de normaalste zaak van de wereld. Het leveren daarvan is voor de kleine 700 medewerkers van Evides Waterbedrijf elke dag weer een mooie uitdaging.

In Nederland zijn wij met ruim 160 miljoen m3 per jaar een van de sterkste spelers op het gebied van drinkwater en behoren we tot de top van industriewaterleveranciers. Het is dan ook niet verwonderlijk dat je bij Evides uit- dagingen treft in allerlei soorten techniek en op alle denkbare niveaus. Waar je ook begint, één ding staat als een paal boven water: Evides Waterbedrijf biedt je riante mogelijk- heden voor ontwikkeling en ontplooiing.

Kansen in techniekEr gaat heel wat werktuigbouw, procestech-niek, civiele techniek, economie en manage-ment om in water. Of je nu net afgestudeerd bent, of al enige jaren werkervaring hebt, bij Evides kun je in diverse richtingen aan de slag. Er liggen vooral volop kansen in de techniek, maar ook in de commercie, in staf-functies en op werkervaringsplaatsen zijn er mogelijkheden. Zelfs in het buitenland. Want ook daar zijn we actief. Dus als jij behalve een relevante opleiding of ervaring een ge-

zonde dosis ambitie meebrengt, dan vind je bij Evides meer dan genoeg perspectief.

Dynamische werkomgevingDoordat wij zowel drinkwater als industrie-water leveren, mag je er vanuit gaan dat in-novatie bij Evides met hoofletters wordt ge-schreven. Wij verdiepen ons voortdurend in vernieuwende technologieën om zowel onze waterkwaliteit als onze dienstverlening op het allerhoogste niveau te houden. Als je alleen al denkt aan het zuiveren van water, dan be-grijp je dat wij bij Evides inmiddels een hoop know-how en een schat aan ervaring in huis hebben. Wij bouwen bijvoorbeeld zelf speci-fieke installaties die het water bij de bron of op locatie zuiveren tot de gewenste kwaliteit. Tegelijkertijd scoren wij hoog op het gebied van efficiëncy. Dat resulteert in lage opera-tionele kosten en relatief lage drinkwater- tarieven. Werken bij Evides betekent werken in een dynamische én professionele om- geving waar je het beste uit jezelf kunt halen.

TraineeshipMet een technische HBO- of WO-opleiding kun je bij Evides kiezen voor een traineeship. Wij praten dan over een intensief leertraject van drie jaar, waarin we je meevoeren langs verschillende multidisciplinaire, (inter)nationa-le projecten. Als trainee krijg je zo een unieke kans om de verschillende aspecten van Evi-des te leren kennen en tegelijkertijd je inhou-delijke en persoonlijke kwaliteiten verder te ontwikkelen. Je wordt als het ware in het die-pe gegooid, waarbij je altijd kunt terugvallen op een interne coach. Ongekend uitdagend!

Dit alles maakt Evides Waterbedrijf als werkgever ongekend veelzijdig. Dat we daarbij een mooi salaris en goede arbeids-voorwaarden bieden, maakt het alleen nog maar aantrekkelijker. Ga er maar voor! Kijk voor meer informatie en actuele vacatures op www.evides.nl/werkenbij

2,5 miljoen consumenten en bedrijven 24/7

van betrouwbaar water voorzien. Ga

er maar voor.

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Why do we care about representation?Written by: Pooja Ramakrishnan

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine wrote an article about ‘Women in STEM’ for TU Delta. It ad-dressed the gender disparity that exists in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathemat-ics) fields and more specifically, the skewed gender ratio at TU’s EEMCS faculty. One of the responses she received was from someone who had taken the liberty to dissect her article — line by line — just to un-derline the fact that her opinions were entirely mis-placed. This event really stuck with me back then. Do people truly not understand the issue at large?

Let us first look at the facts. In 2016, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), the per-centage of female researchers in the Netherlands (with respect to all researchers) stood at a measly 25.8% [1]. This abysmal number is lower than what the world average was at that time: 29.3% [1]. So, to pretend that discussions on the under-representation of women in STEM are unnecessary is vacuous.

The symptoms of such a gender disparity are unsur-prisingly prevalent in so many everyday things. Let us do a quick test. If you were asked to design a magazine cover that visually conveyed the phrase ‘a student’s dreams’, how would you picture it?

In this mental image, was the student male or fe-male? There is a very high probability that a general ‘student’ in your mind is represented by a male per-son or at most an androgynous one. This test hits closer to home for some of us Druppel members be-cause we actively struggled with this when designing

our magazine’s cover a few editions ago. Why did we choose to represent a man as a student rather than a woman? And moreover, if we had used the silhouette of a female as a general representation of the student body, would that have elicited confusion?

This bias, however harmless and isolated it may seem in your head, has resulted in a world that has unknowingly been designed for men. Design that

The gender gap in science: Women as a share of total researchers, 2017

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at times even actively works against women. In her eye-opening book, Invisible Women, Caroline Cri-ado Perez illustrates this by citing a study of snow plowing patterns in Sweden. While major roads are plowed first (as logic dictates), this often serves to only benefit a largely male-dominated commuter set who travel to and from work [3]. It ignores the vast number of women who continue to drive all over the city to complete errands and need access to inter-sections that often remain unplowed [3]. It is only with data collection and paying attention to such design defaults, Caroline writes, that Sweden was able to modify its snow plowing pattern and lower the number of accidents women experienced during this season [3].

However, it did take a woman to see what is happen-ing to women — which immediately underlines the ar-gument Caroline was trying to make.

Still, the situation is never entirely terrible. To borrow a quip from Hans Rosling (of Factfulness fame), the numbers may be bad, but they are better than be-fore. We (women in STEM) have managed to grow and “women pioneers” are no longer just a few lone stars spread thinly along the horizon of time. An ex-cellent example of this is the increasing number of tech startups that are being founded by women- and furthermore, to create products for women. My favor-ite example is that of the modern-day breast pump.

In Sophie Brickman’s excellent essay that discusses the reinvention of the breast pump by the women of Silicon Valley, she writes that the breast pump was first designed in the 1920s after machines that milked cows, and then remained unchanged for the last 100 years [2]! I find it then almost a revolutionary act then that three women in California came together to start

Moxxly: an affordable, discrete and well-designed modern breast pump. For all the joys of motherhood, STEM apparently remains far behind in making it a comfortable and easy experience for women.

Things are not entirely balmy on the West Coast, however. For a start-up to survive, it needs money. This meant that these women had to demonstrate their product to rooms where 9 out of 10 people were men and convince them about the need for such a product in the market [2]. It came as no big surprise to me then, when last year, Moxxly ceased to exist.While start-up stories are never fairytales, there is an important takeaway here. Women should not have to had to wait a century for such an upgrade. While the fact that there was no awareness for such a product or the inclination to improve testifies to the need for more women in STEM, it also implies that the ‘de-fault’ human that is designed for is more male than not. This is what we, as current engineers, need to keep in mind. This is our clarion call to stay alert and aware of our own deeply embedded biases, to en-sure that we strive for equal representation, and to question the status quo.

While columnists often hope that the opinions they have and the statements they make will age well in time, I sincerely hope that my views in this piece be-come rapidly outdated. It might be overly optimis-tic, but the best thing would be to come to know that these numbers are no longer relevant, that the current design defaults are no longer the norm and that in rooms full of venture capitalists, five out ten are women who are making the choice of whether a modern motherhood invention deserves funding. Till then, I hope you and I will put our best efforts to do our very best in making this STEM world an equal one.

References

[1] “Fs55-Women-in-Science-2019-En.Pdf.” n.d. Accessed April 16, 2020. http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/docu-ments/fs55-women-in-science-2019-en.pdf.

[2] “How Silicon Valley Is Reinventing the Breast Pump.” 2017. The California Sunday Magazine. August 3, 2017. https://story.californiasunday.com/moxxly-breast-pump.

[3] “Invisible Women.” n.d. 99% Invisible (blog). Accessed April 16, 2020. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/invisi-ble-women/.

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Tell us something about your hobbies/what you do with your spare time.

Annie: I like to stay at home and watch some soap opera, or walk around in a city, and I enjoy cooking as well.Charlie: My hobbies vary a lot from time to time but now it’s definitely painting. I’m not yet so successful but enjoy the search of creativity :) and if I’m not painting or studying, I like a good read!Haye: In my spare time I play hockey in The Hague and in the summer period I like to go sailing with friends.

What would you do in/with your life, if you wouldn’t have to work for money?

Annie: Then I would to take botanic or biology courses somewhere, or learn dancing again which used to be my dream many years ago. I also wanna travel around the world with another guy (who doesnt have to work for money too) and see local cultures.Charlie: Oooh that is difficult! I would love to write a book. so maybe that would be half the time. the other half I could go out trying to find cool things to write about! and in the spare hours I would not mind traveling a bit ;)Haye: I think I wouldn’t really change that much, but instead focus more on the person behind the people I am working with and try to help them achieve what they want or what they want to become. If that doesn’t work out then I can always buy a farm, grow sustainable foods and pet some animals.

How many coffees do you drink per day and as a result of the Dispuut card, how much money are you going to safe in your board year?

Annie: Usually 1 cup, sometimes 2 cups if I stay the whole day in faculty and go home very late. But I try to limit within 3 cups. Fruit tea is also a good alternative for me. The coffee I usually order is latte macchiato, and if the price is €2.15, then I can save 41*5*2.15 = €440.75 for one academic year! (that’s amazing)Charlie: I try not to drink too much but whenever the card is around I am a sucker for a coffee:) and it is not my proudest characteristic but I actually really enjoy the cheap low quality water like coffee the machine gives you! so what, about 80 cents per day? I’ll be rich!!Haye: That depends on whether my hands start shaking due to the caffeine. But then again, I would probably just switch to chocolate milk. The Dispuut card could potentially save me about half of my student loan debt.

N e w B o a r d M e m b e r s

New Board MembersIn these turbulent times, the world may have seemed to stop turning, but the Dispuut sure hasn’t. At the 23rd of April, three new board members were installed.Time to meet the new members of the Dispuut’s 67th board: Vice-President Haye Rijkens, Treasurer Yiyi Zhang and Commisioner of PR Charlie Jurjus.

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What are your favourite cookies in or for the cookie break?

Annie: Boterkoek and stroopwafel!!!Charlie: that’s easy! the chocolate layered ones! I guess everyone agrees so we’ll just stack up on those for the next year :)Haye: I LIKE ALL! But especially LU Prince Stars and Sultana Apple

And how are you planning to survive the covid-69 crisis of 2069?

Annie: Stay at home for the most of time, keep 1.5m safety distance with other people on the street, and wear masks in supermarkets. But it will all be fine later for sure.Charlie: lots of careful walks in the sun, if not possible a super small turn in our 1m2 front yard :) That and cook-ing good food and playing games with housemates will get me through most days!Haye: Us watermanagers and environmental engineers always tend to look at the challenges that lie ahead. Therefore it is important to consider future risks in a 50 year timeframe. Such risks could for instance be a possi-ble covid-69 outbreak. The covid-19 outbreak has shown that panic soon follows after (inter-)national measures are implemented to prevent further spreading of the virus. As WM&EE students are fast learners, we can antic-ipate such events and prepare in advance to mitigate our exposure and secondary risks concerning a possible covid-69 outbreak. The following steps will be essential to surviving the next viral crisis. So please pay attention carefully if you want to stay ahead of the flattened curve:

1. One of the most important commodities during an international crisis seems to be toilet paper. Watermanag-ers are of course much smarter than the average hamsters that are vigorously hoarding shopping carts full of toilet paper. Watermanagers & environmental engineers already know how the cellulose in toilet paper is clogging up sewer systems and how hard cellulose is to remove in waste water treatment plants. By installing bidets in our houses we no longer have to worry about having enough toilet paper and worry about the hoarding by the hamsters in our society. At the same time we can save up on our energy consumption and be more sustainable, while having perfectly clean butts. The spare toilet paper rolls we have just in case can also be used as a sec-ondary form of currency during this covid-69 crisis.

2. During the quarantine it is especially important to stick to your usual routines. Be sure to implement weekly cookie breaks around 10:30 and pour yourself a nice Quarantini cocktail during the End of the Terms drinks. While the hamsters are busy fighting over toilet paper, make use of this situation to find your favourite cookies in the empty alley at the other side of the supermarket.

Especially in Turbulent times such as a covid-69 outbreak it is important to keep your routine as regular as pos-sible. For instance I would still recommend to get your passe-partout ticket to the 18th lustrum of the Dispuut Water&Environment. The Dispuut has a money-back guarantee and you don’t want to miss the lustrum activities as soon as the quarantine ends and the rescheduled lustrum activities take place. It is important in these times to have some activities to look forward to. So take this opportunity to buy your GALA ticket and go ask your crush before it’s too late. If your crush happens to be coughing or feeling a bit feverish you can always find a new date on Quarantinder.

3. In case you overcome your social anxiety and decide to freely leave your house to go for a stroll outside in the sun, remember that social distancing is like a second nature to us watermanagers and environmental engineers. ‘Meten is weten” is practically our life motto. In the inevitable moment where you do have to face walking past a stranger on the sidewalk within the recommended distance of 1,5 meter; don’t panic yet. The best way to counter this near form of social interaction is to look ahead and scout for lingering plastics and/or trash on the street. In the crucial moment of passing, quickly try to grab this lingering piece of trash. This way we save the environment, give a good example of how things should be and also save ourselves from possible contamination with the covid-69 virus.

In moments of crisis such as a covid-69 outbreak we engineers are the backbone of the society. Remember that not all heroes wear capes and it is our duty to keep our communities stable and get society back on track by using our awkward quirks combined with rationality to our advantage. Enjoy the life as an engineer and stay safe!

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THE CONNECTION IS OURS. CONTACT IS YOURS.

Entrepreneurship in a complex environment but with overview, involvement and understanding of business. Result orientated: everyone says it, only a few live up to it. Arcadis: infrastructure – water – environment – buildings. Independently but integral. We shape society by being creative in our solutions and decisive execution.

As an employee of Arcadis you will be an out of the box thinker. You are part of a network that exists of business professionals. Organized around clients who directly will benefi t from our knowledge and experience.

WE BRING IDEAS TO LIFE. ARE YOU INVOLVED?

INDEPENDENT, PROACTIVE AND ENTREPRENEURIAL PROFESSIONALS WATERMANAGEMENT

When it comes to harbors, hydraulic engineering, water supply, waterlogging, water defi cit, water quality, safety and fairway, the division Water and Environment strives for bringing the best results to our clients. A secure life in a delta by a climate-resistant, durable and fl exible water system. We connect water to regional development, environment and economy. We create short-term solutions that result in perspectives for the long term. The Netherlands, water country par excellence.

Are you curious about the possibilities in the fi eld of water management at Arcadis? Visit our website: www.werkenbijarcadis.nl. Here you will fi nd our current (internship/graduation) vacancies and you will fi nd additional information about working at Arcadis, movies of our colleagues as well as a list of upcoming events.

Are you curious of learning more about our professional vacancies please contact Ms. Rosanne Melissen, Campus recruiter, via rosanne.melissen@arcadis.com or 06 1125 1821, if you want to learn more about (graduation) internship projects at Arcadis.

Will you take the fi rst step? Follow us at:

19-354 adv Watermanagement-the connection is ours A4.indd 1 07-05-19 14:52

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THE CONNECTION IS OURS. CONTACT IS YOURS.

Entrepreneurship in a complex environment but with overview, involvement and understanding of business. Result orientated: everyone says it, only a few live up to it. Arcadis: infrastructure – water – environment – buildings. Independently but integral. We shape society by being creative in our solutions and decisive execution.

As an employee of Arcadis you will be an out of the box thinker. You are part of a network that exists of business professionals. Organized around clients who directly will benefi t from our knowledge and experience.

WE BRING IDEAS TO LIFE. ARE YOU INVOLVED?

INDEPENDENT, PROACTIVE AND ENTREPRENEURIAL PROFESSIONALS WATERMANAGEMENT

When it comes to harbors, hydraulic engineering, water supply, waterlogging, water defi cit, water quality, safety and fairway, the division Water and Environment strives for bringing the best results to our clients. A secure life in a delta by a climate-resistant, durable and fl exible water system. We connect water to regional development, environment and economy. We create short-term solutions that result in perspectives for the long term. The Netherlands, water country par excellence.

Are you curious about the possibilities in the fi eld of water management at Arcadis? Visit our website: www.werkenbijarcadis.nl. Here you will fi nd our current (internship/graduation) vacancies and you will fi nd additional information about working at Arcadis, movies of our colleagues as well as a list of upcoming events.

Are you curious of learning more about our professional vacancies please contact Ms. Rosanne Melissen, Campus recruiter, via rosanne.melissen@arcadis.com or 06 1125 1821, if you want to learn more about (graduation) internship projects at Arcadis.

Will you take the fi rst step? Follow us at:

19-354 adv Watermanagement-the connection is ours A4.indd 1 07-05-19 14:52

P a s t E v e n t s

ZERO WASTE COOKING WORKSHOP

POTLUCK DINNER

ONLINE HOUSEPARTY GET-TOGETHER

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E n t e r t a i n m e n t T i p s

W o m e n i n S c i e c e : B o o k s a n d M o v i e s

Unsure how to survive the coming weeks, unable to leave the house or visit friends? In that case, check out these books and films!

Remote sensing information is incredibly valuable to environmental engineers and water managers - I don’t need to tell anyone. But to whom do we owe access to this data? In part, it’s great work by NASA. Hidden figures por-trays the fates of three female African-American scientists, also known as “human computers” within NASA and played by Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Gobels Johnson. Their mathematical skills combined with their perseverance enable them to defend their rights and become indispensable for the space agency. The story of these three women shows that gender, origin and social rules can be huge challenges, but are not insurmountable obstacles when it is about making your dreams come true.

Hidden Figures, 2017

This book is a look behind the scenes of a woman’s life. What is going on inside of us during a cycle? Maisie Hills explains in an easy and understandable way how the personal monthly pattern of phases in which we feel strong and self-confident can be recognized to days when we are more sensitive and somewhat anti-social. Most importantly, she shows us how this knowledge can be put to good use in the world of work and our social environment, making our lives much easier. By the way, this is also very valuable knowledge for the male repre-sentatives of our species, who seek another piece of the puzzle of a woman’s life.

Period Power, Maisie Hill

Written by: Katharina Wilbrand

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Jane Goodall is one of the most important scientific women nowadays. She is an English primatologist and an-thropologist who spent decades studying chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Jane was 26 when she left the UK to go live in a wild camp with the main task of getting close enough to chimpanzees in order to document their behaviour.

At Gombe Jane was able to prove to herself chimpanzees can develop tools and generate and teach to each other. She was even able to study how chimpanzees’ sex life is and whether they have feelings or not. With her research she got to question the definition of “man” there was at the time, realizing chimpanzees fitted that defi-nition as well. All of these were revolutionary findings in the 60’s, especially because they were made by a young college-uneducated woman without direct supervision of men.

JANE, 2017

Decades later, Goodall became a full-time activist towards chimpanzees’ habitat conservation and founded Jane Goodall Institute to re-home chimpanzees orphaned or confiscated from traffickers and poachers.The National Geographic documentary JANE (2017) has incredible original footage from Jane’s first years in Gombe National Park back in the 60’s. The film was found after decades and it’s complemented with stories and research findings from Jane’s book “In the Shadow of Man”.

Written by: Isidora Araya Day

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Being a grown-up girl in a world built for men

Written by: Samyuktha Sathish

I started off writing this piece in a completely different tone from a completely different perspective; some-where along the lines of “Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s Prime Minister gave birth to a child in office. She joins late Benazir Bhutto who gave birth to a child in office, 30 years ago when she was the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Both women have broken stereotypes in more than one way, three decades apart! Do we smell progress?”

But then, COVID-19 happened! I stumbled upon this article on Facebook (while I was mindlessly scrolling, I have to admit!) titled ‘All six countries with the best re-sponse to Covid-19 have one thing in common: Women Leaders’ An almost reflex thought I had was, “Obvious-ly! This situation requires the right concoction of ratio-nality and empathy. Who better than the women to take care of crisis management, huh?!” I just knew I had to write this down.

Fighting Covid-19, the enemy we are slowly getting to know, requires the support of millions of people who look up to their leaders for direction. While it is hard enough to make the right decision; the bigger challenge is to communicate that decision to the masses such that, irrespective of whether they like you or not; they have to trust this decision of yours and follow it to the T. The most extensive research in this field comes from Jacqueline and Milton Mayfield’s research-based model highlighting “direction-giving”, “meaning-making” and “empathy” as the three key things leaders must address to motivate followers to give their best. And women seem to just have it in their blood, don’t they? Why do you think there is such a hype about emotional quotient being as important as the intelligence quotient? Emotion can be a wise guide in helping people make a decision but it could also be a very dangerous deceiver. While most argue that a woman’s decision-making ability is often clouded by empathy leading to them making the wrong choice; I’d argue that men too often want to play it by the book leading them to not even consider the other options at hand. Women often find the right bal-ance between reason and emotion, making them better leaders – the Prime Ministers of New Zealand, Finland, Belgium, Taiwan, Iceland and Denmark are all living tes-timony.

Emotions have a subtler role to play in technology- the belief that probably leads to women being largely un-

der-represented in the tech-domain? Early 2019, a last-minute spacesuit switch saw the cancellation of Nasa’s first all-female spacewalk, one of the reasons be-ing that the spacesuit was not very well-fit for a female torso. Is the world built to suit the men better? While I do not mean to nit-pick; there is evidence to back that thought of mine. Police stab vests, CPR mannequins, space suits and car crash dummies not accounting the female body-type is the very sad reality. Biologist Jessi-ca Mounts, executive director of the Kansas Alliance for Wetlands and Streams said to the BBC that keeping the annoyance factor aside; it is simply not safe for women to have to work in gowns too lose and boots too big because the male average size and male lifestyle is con-sidered “default”.

Synthetic polymers used in bullet-proof vests, firefight-ers’ suits, tennis racquets, sneakers and yoga pants, we owe it to chemist Stephanie Kwolek, a woman chemist. Every time we grab a beer from the fridge, let’s thank Abbes Hildegarde de Bingen for the beer and Florence Parpart for the modern-day fridge; both women. First solar-powered home was invented by Maria Telkes, again a woman. Today, thanks to Covid-19, majority of the world has a make-shift workplace at home. Marie Allen Wilkes made work from home a reality! She took the LINC computer home to write the LAP6 operating system and thanks to her, all of us can continue to work remotely today! ENIAC- the first electrical computer was programmed by women! The world’s first coders were women, who calculated missile trajectories! Shirley Jackson, who set up the base for inventions in the field of telecommunication, Grace Hooper- one of the first computer programmers; Hedy Lamarr who developed a frequency hopping system that formed the basis of the Wi-Fi invention are all, no points for guessing, women! And without the above, to set things in motion in the respective fields of innovation; today would have been no less than a nightmare! Now that’s too many exclama-tions in a single line; but I’d urge you to read it that way and to read it again! Despite all these achievements; women are still considered a liability when they decide to start a family. And this happens very often in the mid-dle level affecting their career growth and hence their representation in the top levels. Women in the workforce have an inherent need to prove that they are as good, as reliable and as devoted as men! But why the compari-son to men at all? Why can’t it just be “the best they can

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be”. Too often, women who go home early citing family needs are considered to be beneath their male counter-parts. But is it not enough if they can deliver equivalent results in lesser time? Shouldn’t their ability to multi-task be appreciated? In fact, I’d say that a woman who has a family to take care of is a very rationale and efficient human being. Just look at your mother or your grand-mother- they can be loving yet stern- they always hit the right balance which is key at workplace as well.

Now, there is no denying the fact that men are excep-tional. Then why this fuss about what women have achieved, you may ask. Why is it that we always seem to be talking about ‘how women….’, their struggles at workplace, their fight and what not. The very fact that things done by women have to be highlighted to be noticed, is sad. It is pathetic that men are default and women are niche- a variety of men!

As a car enthusiast’s daughter (a car enthusiast myself, to a certain extent), simple things like the lack of atten-tion a woman receives when she enters a car showroom just gets to me! Scanti-ly-clad models during car exhibits to sell the cars planned, designed and marketed to men is iron-ic and outrageous. Most super car brands make little to no effort to ad-dress the women. If you come to think of it, how many times have you flipped through maga-zines having more female readers to find exuberant adverts on super cars? Or how easy is it to get in and out of a super car wear-ing a skirt (eye-roll)? Dare we be told to wear pants to be eligible to drive a car! 76-year-old Sonja Heiniger, the Swiss owner of an Internet services firm owns four Lamborghinis and hits the racetrack in a Porsche. It’s a pity that that super cars and super bike brands do not realize that women also love to drive powerful, fully loaded vehicles. It might prove costly in the near future with an increase in the number of women who are both independent and who’d like to exuberate power in all ways possible including getting hold of the Crème de la Crème.

While some of us may argue that asking for special con-siderations because we are women does not send out the right message; I’d say that the consideration we ask for is special in the first place only because we were conveniently left out when important plans were drafted! Instead of conceiving designs plans and strategies with no gender bias; things are devised with just the men in mind! And it is only fair that we draft gender neutral plans or plans that also have women in mind! Simple things like office spaces are particularly designed for

men. Don’t believe me? The formula for standard US office temperatures was developed in the 1960s, based on the metabolic rate of an average 40-year-old man weighing 154 pounds (70kg). The formula for standard US office temperatures was developed in the 1960s, based on the metabolic rate of an average 40-year-old man weighing 154 pounds (70kg). According to an ar-ticle published in the journal Nature, female metabolic rate can be up to 35% lower than the male rate used in those calculations - which amounts to, on average, a five-degree temperature preference difference. That an-swers another question I’ve mentioned above-have we let the world be designed for the men alone?

Porsche picking tennis star Maria Sharapova as a brand ambassador is a welcome change. Hopefully, a start to many revolutions. Let’s not forget that it is Annie Easley, a woman, that we have to thank for hybrid car batter-ies. It is also refreshing to see Mary Barra as the chief executive of General Motors, Aston Martin planning a new crossover that will have a higher sitting position as well as a slightly smaller steering wheel well-suited for

the other half of the pop-ulation.Women in SEAL, more women in FBI coun-terintelligence service, more women in FORBES 500 are all welcome changes. But, as cliched as it might sound, there is a long-long way to go!

In the mean time let’s not forget to acknowl-edge the men who are here and trying. Let’s not forget that behind every

successful person, there is a support system! Be it Mi-chelle Obama, wife of Barack Obama or Onler Kom, husband of Mary Kom! So many other men like Clarke Gayford who is supporting the new mother and the cur-rent Prime Minister of New Zealand- Jacinda Ardern, deserve praise and attention. Let’s not do to men what they do to us. Let’s be true to our nature by being sup-portive, appreciating and be kind!

P.S: Around the time we decided the theme of this is-sue, I was reading ‘Becoming’- Michelle Obama’s mem-oir, watching Suits, Workin’ Moms and Gilmore Girls on Netflix (I am not a fan of binge watching a single show at a time!) and on my way home (India)! One thing I ob-served is that, no matter how influential, important and eminent women grow up to be; there are parts in us that never ceases to be the young, care-free, stubborn, naughty little girls we always were! The girl in us is buried deep in there, taking a sneak-peek once in a while when we just let ourselves go.

Cheers to the grown-up girls, uh, I mean, the women!

“Women in the workforce have an inherent need to prove that they are as good, as reliable

and as devoted as men! “

4 0

QUARAN-TRY IT BINGO!Most awaited event(s) got cancelled

Bulk shopping

Become extra clean with everything

Afraid of nor-mal coughing

in publicMask, mask,

mask!

Run out of toilet papers

Enjoy every minute of staying at

home

Decided to do some

gardening

(Re)-down-load Tinder

Exercise every day

Coffee/lunch with friends using video

call

Online classes

1.5 m everywhere,

everyone

Join Dispuut’s online

activities

Go back home/ home

country

Develop new skill(s)

Discovering weird and

absurd videos on Youtube

More productive than ever

Make plans for the next holiday after quarantine

Eat more

Miss the Uni more than

ever

Grow beard because why

not

Sleep, sleep, sleep

My time is only for

work/ study

Supermarket: vacation

destination