Plenty of initiatives to get more women into tech, but...
The gains will not come from another campaign, but building a chain: from the introduction to tech, to career progression in safe workplaces
The Netherlands has no shortage of campaigns, guest lectures, networks and diversity programmes. What is missing is a continuous approach that guides girls from primary school to a technical degree programme, a first job and a workplace where they want to stay. As long as each organisation attempts to remove just one obstacle, the outcome will remain virtually unchanged: four to five men for every woman working in technology and IT.
The greatest gains will not come from yet another campaign, but from building a chain: early exposure, hands-on technical experience, gender-aware guidance, recognisable role models, an inclusive degree programme, a suitable internship, fair recruitment and, ultimately, the opportunity to work and progress in a safe workplace.
An initiative already exists in the Netherlands for almost every part of that chain. Some reach thousands of girls, while others try to change educational institutions or employers. Yet they are not sufficiently connected. Organisations often measure how many people attend an activity, but not whether a girl subsequently chooses a technical subject profile, completes a technical degree, enters a technical occupation and is still working there five years later.
The figures tell the story
The problem is clearly visible in the figures. In the second quarter of 2026, 1.386 million people in the Netherlands worked in a technical occupation and 589,000 worked in an ICT occupation. In both occupational groups, approximately eight out of ten workers are men. At the end of 2025, 229,000 women and 1.122 million men worked in technical occupations. In ICT, the figures were 109,000 women and 466,000 men.
The differences begin in education. In the 2024/2025 academic year, only 8.2 per cent of students in Dutch secondary vocational education, or mbo, studying technology and the built environment were women. Among first-year students in engineering, manufacturing and construction, women accounted for 27.7 per cent at universities of applied sciences and 30.8 per cent at research universities. Computer science is even more unevenly divided, with women accounting for just 14.3 per cent of first-year students at universities of applied sciences.
More talent is lost after graduation. In 2024, approximately 59 per cent of technically educated men worked in a technical occupation. Among technically educated women, that proportion was only 33 per cent. According to an analysis by VHTO, 65 per cent of women who do enter the sector after completing a technical education eventually leave the technical field. Among men, the figure is 42 per cent.
That does not mean the existing initiatives are pointless. On the contrary: without Girls’ Day, Techkwadraat, Fe+Male Tech Heroes and the efforts of educational institutions and employers, the problem would probably be even greater. But individually, they cannot remove every obstacle along the course.
Curious to know what initiatives are already in place to encourage more women into engineering? Innovation Origins lists eleven different initiatives and looks at what’s already working well and where there are still opportunities.
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