{"id":130154,"date":"2021-09-09T09:32:20","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T07:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=130154"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:50","slug":"remembering-dianne-bevelander-she-taught-me-that-women-can-lead-wherever-they-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/09\/09\/remembering-dianne-bevelander-she-taught-me-that-women-can-lead-wherever-they-are\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Dianne Bevelander: \u2018She taught me that women can lead wherever they are\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

She had been ill for a long time, survived endless treatments and continued to work. She seemed to be unstoppable. But now she has gone: Dianne Bevelander, Professor of Management Education and founder and until recently director of the Erasmus Centre for Women and Organisations (ECWO), died at the end of last month. Friends and colleagues Semiha Denkta\u015f and Hanneke Takkenberg remember her and describe what her legacy means for the university.<\/p>\n

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Dianne Bevelander<\/span><\/p>

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She leaves an unfillable hole at the group\u2019s table. The group that came together several years ago: Dianne organised a lunch and invited Semiha Denkta\u015f, Professor at ESSB and chief diversity officer at the university, and Hanneke Takkenberg, Professor at Erasmus MC and chair of the National Network of Women Professors, calling it: Three female professors having lunch<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Infectious energy<\/h2>

Sometimes they were joined by other women, from the academy or from industry. One time, Rotterdam-based lingerie queen Marlies Dekkers talked about entrepreneurship and what she had learned from her bankruptcy. One of the last times, they met at a sort of snack bar run by a woman. \u201cDianne brought a positive energy when she came into the room, and that was infectious: we always had a laugh,\u201d says Denkta\u015f.<\/p>\n

Which is how the third professor at the table, Hanneke Takkenberg, remembers her too. Last April, she took over Bevelander\u2019s tasks at the ECWO. \u201cDianne was slightly less political than I am,\u201d Takkenberg chuckles. As chief diversity officer at EUR, she didn\u2019t hold back either. \u201cShe was direct and compelling and could be pretty insistent in getting her own way, so that you ended up thinking: what happened there? But she got away with it and got things done.\u201d<\/p>\n

European funding<\/h2>

However, she didn\u2019t always have things easy at RSM with her battle to draw attention to gender inequality and female leadership. \u201cShe got more support for her work outside the university than inside,\u201d says Takkenberg. It was only in the last few years that the business faculty started to take note of these themes. In 2019, they could no longer get around Bevelander and her ECWO when she won 3 million euros in European research funding for removing obstacles to the recruitment, retention and career development of female researchers.<\/p>\n

But Bevelander\u2019s work transcended the ECWO alone. One of Takkenberg\u2019s fondest memories of Bevelander is the event in 2017, when young girls from secondary school were able to spend a day with a female professor and do workshops. \u201cThat was Dianne\u2019s idea. It was amazing what happened there. That day I learned what swag<\/em> was; how those girls left the hall with so much swag<\/em> to apply what they had learned the next day. That made such an impression on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sisterhood<\/h2>

And then there was her illness \u2013 cancer \u2013 in recent years. Two years ago, just before her sixtieth birthday, when she heard that it was terminal, she gave a big party on the SS Rotterdam. Her father used to work on a cruise ship, and as a child she often travelled with him. She asked all the guests \u2013 men and women \u2013 to come as the person they had always wanted to be. \u201cThere were hippies, farmers and witches, and we all had to do an act,\u201d Takkenberg remembers. \u201cI came as a witch, magicked myself away and reappeared as Michelle Obama. I used Obama\u2019s speech with an alternative text about Dianne.\u201d Dianne was dressed in traditional South African clothing as a tribute to the country she was born in.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe taught me that women can lead wherever they are,\u201d says Takkenberg. \u201cWhether you are very young or at the top of an organisation, you can lead through your own strength. And she taught me that women should not only be assertive for themselves but also for each other. Sisterhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Great pioneer<\/h2>

Takkenberg calls Bevelander a great pioneer for \u2018gender balanced leadership\u2019 at Erasmus University. \u201cWith ECWO via the Women in Academia<\/em> programme and various workshops and events, she encouraged many ambitious female academics to take the next step in their careers and to support each other. As such, she was very significant for Erasmus University, and her influence will continue to be felt in the coming years via the networks of women she inspired. We will continue to promote Dianne\u2019s vision of \u2018a world where women have an equal share of organisational power and influence\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Liesbeth Noordergraaf, left, presents Dianne Bevelander, right, with the FAME Athena Award at the Dies Natalis 2019.<\/span><\/p>

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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