Founder of the month: Layla Li Layla Li was born and raised in a small town near Tibet, China, and later moved to Shanghai before moving to the US at the age of 18. She had a triple major in college, studying psychology, Japanese, and communication. Layla also did some gap years and lived abroad …

Breaking Barriers and Building Bonds: The Power of a Women’s Community As women, we face unique challenges and experiences in our lives and careers. From balancing work and family to breaking through glass ceilings, it’s important to have a supportive community to turn to for advice, encouragement, and inspiration. That’s where a women’s community comes …

Van hackers tot beveiligers: Waarom vrouwen passen in de wereld van cybersecurity Equals Academy Als de meeste mensen aan cybersecurity denken, stellen ze zich waarschijnlijk een man in een hoodie voor die gebogen over een computerscherm zit en woest typt. Hoewel het waar is dat mannen traditioneel de overhand hebben in dit veld, is er …

Founder of the month: Anieke Lamers This month at Equals we’re putting Anieke Lamers from Peekabond in the spotlight to celebrate and share her founder journey.   Before becoming an entrepreneur, Anieke initially studied finance in Amsterdam, Australia, Argentina, Kenya, the US and London. She had a career in venture capital, and for 8 years she …

Arianne van de Wetering  For our Role Model Campaign, we met with Arianne van de Wetering, a Health Data Specialist at Nictiz. With more than 20 years of experience in information exchange, she explained how her desire to solve analytical challenges in society keeps her motivated. She wants to keep growing and evolving as an …

Eky Kaelani   This week we would like to highlight another one of our awe-inspiring role models, Eky Kaelani, a healthcare information analyst at Nictiz. We held this interview a day after her 32nd birthday.    In the pool or on the court?   From an early age, Eky was inspired by Michael Jordan. She …

Feikje Hielkema-Raadsveld    At Equals, we believe it’s essential to surround ourselves with positive role models who inspire everyone to reach for the stars. As part of our Role Model Campaign, we are delighted to introduce you to one more inspiring Role Model, Feikje Hielkema-Raadsveld. Feikje is a true inspiration for women in STEM fields. …

Evren Unsal As part of our Role Model Campaign, centred around International Women’s Day 2023, we are getting to know Role Models from different organizations. In this article we get to learn more about Evren Unsal, who works as the academic partnership manager for Shell. Evren was born in the northwest of Turkey, near the …

Founder of the month: Sacha Martina This month, get ready to be inspired by one of our role models: Sacha Martina. Sacha is a passionate, people person, an unstoppable force, and a living testament to the fact that “just because you have a more difficult start, doesn’t mean that you can’t have a successful ending.” …

Niloofar Yazdani As part of our Role Model Campaign, centred around International Women’s Day 2023, we are getting to know Role Models from different organisations. In this article we are sharing the story of Niloofar Yazdani who works at TWTG.   Niloofar grew up in a small city in the east of Iran. It was close …

Patrica Lip As part of our Role Model Campaign, centred around International Women’s Day 2023, we have interviewed Role Models from different companies to get to know their stories. For this article we talked to Patricia Lip, commercial manager IT at Yacht. Patricia is a hard-working woman who already has an impressive career path behind …

Nasra Khan In this article, we learn more about Nasra Khan, a healthcare data architect at Nictiz. Nasra’s parents emigrated to the Netherlands from Pakistan. She and her two brothers were born and raised in the Hague. As a child she dreamed of becoming an air hostess so she could fly and travel the world, …

Mandana Miradi  As part of our Role Model Campaign, centred around International Women’s Day 2023, we have interviewed Role Models from different companies to get to know their stories. For this article, we talked to Mandana Miradi, Lead Digital Solutions at Yacht. She is 41 years old and lives together with her partner and their …

Chantal Schiltmeijer  In effort to learn more about the women behind the posters of our Role Model Campaign, in this article, we interview Chantal Schiltmeijer, who is a technical implementation advisor at Nictiz. Read along to discover how Chantal transitioned into a tech career after 21 years of being a nurse.   Chantal was born and …

Daphnee Portheault As part of our Role Model Campaign, centred around International Women’s Day 2023, we are getting to know Role Models from different organizations. For this article, we interviewed Daphnee Portheault, lead Software Engineer at HUBS. Daphnee is originally from France and moved to Holland in 2020 because of progressive attitudes within the country.   …

Nadine Herrwerth As part of our Role Model Campaign, centred around International Women’s Day 2023, we met role models from different organisations in the Netherlands. In this article, we interview Nadine Herrwerth, CEO of TWTG, to learn more about her experiences as a woman getting to the top of the industry.   Originally from Germany, after spending …

Lieke Schepers “An open, curious, enthusiastic, driven person”. That is how Lieke Schepers describes herself. She is 43 years old, lives in Apeldoorn, together with her three children and her husband Michiel. Besides this, she has an impressive career as a CEO of Yacht Group. How did she get here, what does her life look …

Let’s accelerate gender representation together!  Today, March 8th, is International Women’s Day. A day to honour all women’s political, economic and social accomplishments.  Acknowledging and celebrating the women who are leaders in innovation and tech is vital. Since the tech industry has developed rapidly in the last few years, it is necessary to take a …

It’s almost International Women’s Day, and this year to build up to the release of our campaign we are taking an in-depth look at Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) practices from various companies. In this article we spoke to Marlon Ranson – van den Berg, Head of HR (NL) and Hanne Van de Broek, who works …

As part of our Role Model Campaign, this year we are spending time getting to know more about different diversity and inclusion (D&I) practices from various companies. In the spotlight for this article is Miele X, where we spoke to Tanja Antonijevic, the HR Director, and Matea Fogec, the External Communications Manager. Together they have …

Every month we aim to spotlight the stories of women* founders to share their journey and knowledge for our community. This month we interviewed Masha Plotkina for our founder of the month. We believe she has a fascinating experience and inspiring story to share that could encourage many starting entrepreneurs.   Mariia is originally from Russia …

Leading up to the launch of our Role Model Campaign on International Women’s Day, we wanted to take a deeper look into company practises around diversity and inclusion (D&I). In this article we interviewed Maarten Hoogvliet and Robbin Habermehl, founders of Humanoids. They established Humanoids in 2017, with 30 years of collective experience working in …

As part of our Role Model Campaign, centred around International Women’s Day 2023, we interviewed companies that are making an effort to ensure diversity and inclusion within their organization. For this article, we interviewed Cassandra Shapiro, global head of DEI at Reaktor. This global software and technology consultancy company works with clients all over the …

As part of our Role Model Campaign, centred around International Women’s Day 2023, we interviewed companies that are making an effort to ensure diversity and inclusion within their organization. For this article, we interviewed Tanya van Wilgenburgh, Chief of People & Culture at Seenons. Seenons is a tech company that strives for a waste-free world. …

As part of our Role Model Campaign, centred around International Women’s Day 2023, we interviewed companies that are making an effort to ensure diversity and inclusion within their organisation. For this article, we interviewed two company representatives of TNO: the largest independent research, development and consultancy organisation in the Netherlands, focusing on applied science. Their …

Every month we aim to spotlight the stories of women* founders to share their journey and knowledge for our community. This month we sat down with Robin Laird. Robin is multidimensional, multicultural and multitalented! Being both from the USA and the Netherlands, Robin’s life journey is far from a singular path. She describes it as …

When was the last time you really celebrated yourself? For getting a project done at work that you worked on for so long. Or for getting up in the morning despite the warmth of your bed and tackling a busy day. Thanks to our “better, faster, further” mentality, celebrating success became marginal. While the world …

Why your first career does not have to be your forever one… The story of Vinthujah, a woman in tech.  More often than you think, people do not end up choosing the career path that they studied for or thought they would go into in the first place. It is totally okay to gain experience …

In this blog, we focus on something that we all get to deal with some day: leadership. Whether you are a leader yourself or an aspiring leader, leadership skills can come in handy at any point in life. Not only in your career, but also in your day-to-day.  What is leadership? When typing the term …

Every week, we highlight one women founder. This week, Parya Lotfi, founder of DuckDuckGoose is put in the spotlight. You may have seen a video circulating on social media, where the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, appears to tell his army to surrender to the Russian army. The video was a so-called deepfake.     In short, deepfakes …

Every week, we highlight one women founder. This week, Melanie Rieback, founder of Radically Open Security is put in the spotlight. A new study course, titled “Post Growth Entrepreneurship” will be launched at the beginning of 2023 at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. A pioneering 6 ECTS course developed and taught by Dr. Melanie Rieback. She is …

Every week, we highlight one woman founder. This week, Noelle Cicilia, founder of Brush AI, is put in the spotlight. The Toeslagenaffaire (also known as the Dutch Childcare Benefits Scandal), the Apple gender discrimination credit card scandal, and the Google photo categorization software labelling black people as gorillas. These are just a few of the many examples of …

Every week, we highlight one women founder. This week, Faviola Brugger Dadis, founder of NeuroReality, is put in the spotlight. Cognitive aspects of our brain are the functions that, among other things, allow us to think, to have a memory, to pay attention and much more. All those daily activities often are taken for granted …

In this blog, we will focus on an important and increasingly used component in the business realm: networking, as a tool to develop our professional network and optimize its benefits in order to pursue the career of our dreams. You have surely heard often how, at times – in addition to the skills acquired – …

Every week, we highlight one women founder. This week, Laura Hoogland, founder of SUNT, is put in the spotlight. Did you know that bananas are the most wasted food worldwide? After harvest, almost 60% of banana biomass is left as waste. Globally, there is a waste of 114,08 million metric tons solely of bananas. Export …

Every week, we highlight one women founder. This week, Marscha Goei, one of the co-founders of Breeze, is put in the spotlight. With over 323 million people worldwide making use of them, app stores are loaded with dating apps. However, deep down the mechanism proposed is the same: you match, you chat and who knows …

From teacher, to hairdresser, to data engineer… The story of Academy student Kally Chung When looking for her, you will probably find Academy student Kally somewhere in the classroom helping another student. She is the perfect example of a hard worker. Not only for herself, but also for her classmates, who she now proudly calls …

Imagine a platform where sex isn’t taboo, but where the beauty of sex is celebrated. Imagine a platform where sexual pleasure isn’t shamed, but normalized, regardless of one’s sexual preferences or gender identity. Dream no further. That’s exactly what Loes Jaber is building, a social media platform for sexual content, named NUDITAE. “It’s a safe …

Every week, we highlight one women founder. This week, Shokoofeh Ketabchi, founder of Tanfit, is put in the spotlight. Nowadays, it is known to many that The Netherlands is the mecca for business starters, start-ups, and tech companies. According to data from 2020, this country is home to more than two million businesses. Facilitated bureaucracy, …

Do you remember the bewildering images of piles of clothes, covering the Atacama Desert we got to see some months ago?   Images that do not need words, because they already speak for themselves: the umpteenth consequence of our lifestyle, marked by a voracious consumption, in which we buy, use, and throw away. A circle endlessly …

Some of our daily habits, such as shopping for clothing items or something for the house, can have a huge environmental impact on the planet hosting us. An impact, we aren’t aware of, or better we do not take into account yet – as much as we should at least -. Outsourcing, underpaid labor forces and …

Too shy for TikTok? Can’t get into Clubhouse? Forgot granny’s birthday? Or just want to cheer up a friend? Loop it up with this fun easy audio messaging tool called Loops Audio. The idea for this app started at the kitchen table while Nathalie Hennequin and Lianne Bergeron were brainstorming about how they could bring …

Since October, the number of employees affected by burnout has almost doubled, as reported by CNV. The research took into account over 2,600 employees, with 1 in 5 workers being on the verge of burn-out. That the mental health consequences of the prolonged coronavirus crisis are becoming ever more prevalent comes at no surprise, and …

*Pic credit to Stance Photography Imagine finding yourself in the dusty desert surrounded by sage and slate gray. Around you only 400 square mile of what is known as the Black Rock Desert. Catapulted in another reality, where the phone doesn’t work and money doesn’t exist. That’s how Steffy du Maine felt, 4 years ago, when she …

Another generation of women will have to wait for gender parity, states the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021. A too long time according to Elja Abdullaeva, 34, based in Amsterdam, founder of ConnectHer,  who has decided to roll up her sleeves and take matters into her own hands. Born in Azerbaijan, Elja …

We want to talk, listen and tell together inspiring stories of founders, who decided to kick off with their own business: this month has been dedicated to Sandra van Beest, founder of The Social Handshake. A fintech company, that makes doing good easy. Indeed the social handshake offers LoonGift, a new fringe benefit for progressive …

The effect triggered by the spread of the Covid-19 virus, as far as tourism is concerned, is in front of everyone’s eyes. Amid closed borders and rain of cancellations all over the world, travel came to a virtual standstill. Although a range of protocols, covering the new normal, for providers such as airlines, shops, hotels …

Amsterdam, 1996. Monique Antoinette Ansink became Nestlè’s first female account manager. “I was an experiment” she explains “they thought sales was really a men’s job”. But that wasn’t her first work experience. Her career started previously in Hoorn in a small company selling security straps. Despite her success at Nestlè, it only lasted until 1999. Until …

Food for thought from Hannah Ray, Business + Career Coach, TAKE coaching Amsterdam. When you think of a successful female entrepreneur... Who comes to mind? How does she speak? How does she stand? Where does she do her work? What does she look like? What does she wear? What time does she get up and …

We have partnered up with StartupGenome to study female leaders and women working in the European technology startup ecosystem. Supported by StartupAmsterdam, we are working together to analyze the women in technology landscape in Europe and rank the 25 top European ecosystems for female leaders. We have considered the percentage of funding that female founders received, the overall …

How difficult it can be to combine study and relevant work, actual and former students know well. Indeed finding flexible work seems a mirage. Not to mention finding something related to one’s studies. And on top of everything, certainly the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t make it any easier. Typically, students either work in restaurants or bars, reinvent …

Women in AI (WAI) is a nonprofit do-tank working towards gender-inclusive artificial intelligence (AI) that benefits global society with the mission of increasing female representation and participation in AI. WAI believes nurturing more AI-empowered future STEM decision-makers who are women and come from diverse backgrounds is critical for the non-biased AI future. It is a community-driven …