On Thursday 31 January, we kicked off the first TopFem event in 2019!

We are thankful for our keynote speaker Charon Duermeijer, Senior Director Academic Customer Engagement at Elsevier, who introduced us into the world of Women in Science.
First, she shared with us her career path and the choices and (difficult?) decisions she had to make along. Some value insights she shared with us is that career developments come in many shapes. It could be easy to say yes to a promotion, but if the position does not feel right to you, it would be totally good to have the courage and look further. Also, an important reminder is that a career path does not necessarily have to go up, but can also go sideways and you would still be growing. Finally, a piece of insightful advice is that you shouldn’t think that people will know what your ambitions are. Often, they do not know, so dare to speak out your ambitions!
Next, she told us about the world Women in Science. The proportion of women among researches and inventors is increasing. And although women publish fewer research papers on average than men, the papers that are published, have great impact :slightly_smiling_face: Elsevier is committed to making a difference in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics diversity and we think that that is a great initiative.
Also, Charon told us about the importance of having a diverse network: having a big network is not enough. To be effective, it has to be diverse as well. She gave us tips about how to develop a diverse network and we did an interesting personal network exercise.
After Charon, the stage was for our new mentor Lauren Kiraly, an independent business owner and also a member of the TEDxAmsterdamWomen team. She is such a powerful woman and gave us valuable insights. We are thankful that she wanted to join the TopFem network by being a mentor!

If you are also excited to join our Mentor&Network Programme or Alumni Programme, please do not hesitate to reach out to us!