When I entered the Dutch academic world as a young (male) scholar in 1983, I expected to become part of a broad-minded, open community in which thoughts and ideas would be exchanged. Nothing could have been further from the truth. I became part of a world in which scholarly ideas were hardly ever exchanged and open discussions barely possible. Moreover, there were many conflicts between my colleagues, on a professional as well as personal level. Many of these were over power and status, and they often arose from jealousy and frustration over the success of other scholars and/or those in positions of authority within the university. Within this strange world, I have always done my best to go my own way, to stay true to myself and to treat my colleagues and students with the respect they deserve, regardless of gender, background and skin color. Hopefully I have succeeded in this.
At the time of my entry into academia, it was much more hierarchical than it is now. Full professors (most of them male) were at the top of the hierarchy and wielded considerable power over everyone lower in the pecking order. Fortunately, that has changed somewhat over the years, and now the voices of those lower in the hierarchy are also being heard. Yet full professors still exercise substantial authority and sometimes abuse their power. I am sorry to say that, in my experience at least, the increased number of female full professors over the past decades does not appear to have improved this situation. Like men, women in positions of authority sometimes behave in intimidating ways towards those below them in the hierarchy.
Fortunately, I have seldom been a victim of abuse of power and intimidation in my academic career. I remember only one such occasion, which had a great impact on me personally. The incident occurred in the early 1990s, as I was gradually becoming successful as a scholar and administrator within my department and the faculty of arts. My boss at the time had, as a young scholar, seemed to have a promising career ahead but did not live up to expectations. In the beginning, he supported me unreservedly, but our relationship gradually deteriorated with my growing success. We had disagreements and he tried to thwart my career. Our differences of opinion increased and I was regularly the target of his fits of anger. I thus avoided him as much as possible. The shit really hit the fan one day when he stormed into my office because I had apparently said or done something that was not to his liking. He started bullying me and said, “I am the professor here. I make the decisions, and you do as I tell you.” I was shocked and asked him to leave my office. I filed a formal complaint about his inappropriate behavior, shown towards others as well as towards me. I think he received a formal reprimand. After that, we avoided one another and were no longer on speaking terms. These strained relations gave me cause to seriously consider leaving academia, but I’m glad I didn’t. Fortunately, over the last decades academia has become more open, broad-minded, diverse and less hierarchical, even though there is still a world to win.
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