TEDxAW Conversations 2024
Conversations give us the opportunity to keep the mission of TEDxAmsterdam Women alive throughout the year. They are a smaller and more intimate way to interact with our TEDx community allowing for discussion and sharing of ideas and best practices around topics that are current, and important for the empowerment of women. They are for TEDxAmsterdam Women members and partners only.
November 21st, 2024
TEDxAW Conversations 2024 # 2
Mend the Gap : Addressing the (Gender / Race /Age) pay gap & disparity
Why do women still earn less than men? And get less opportunities to get higher paid jobs? In 2022, the gender pay gap was 12.7% in the EU. In other words, women earned 12.7 per cent on average less per hour than men. And while attempts are being made to understand this discrepancy, there is still a large lack of information to explain why this is happening in the EU.
Moreover, we see that highly feminized jobs are being systematically undervalued and underpaid. If we look at the pay gap in different occupations, female managers are at the greatest disadvantage. Earning an average of 23% less per hour than their male counterparts.
The gender pay gap does not occur in isolation. In intersection with age and race; the gaps widen – leading to higher risks of poverty and exclusion over time.
Together we want to address not simply these challenges but most importantly the possible solutions. We want to share success stories of both companies who have closed the gap and individuals who have experienced a positive change firsthand.
Our aim is to give you the tools to take steps within your organization to close the gender/race pay gap.
Anita Letting is an international keynote speaker, advisor, and author. After a global career in HR and payroll consulting and outsourcing, she started her own business to help CHROs and their teams leverage the latest technologies to drive HR innovation in the future of work.
Anita is a Linkedin Top Voice and has been recognized as a Top 25 Global Thought Leader on the Future of Work and a Top 100 HR Tech Influencer. She is the author of “Equal Pay for Equal Work” and “How to Select Your Next Payroll”. Anita is Partner at Strategic Management Centre and the founder of HRTechradar.
Anita is a Linkedin Top Voice and has been recognized as a Top 25 Global Thought Leader on the Future of Work and a Top 100 HR Tech Influencer. She is the author of “Equal Pay for Equal Work” and “How to Select Your Next Payroll”. Anita is Partner at Strategic Management Centre and the founder of HRTechradar.
Karen Oldhoven is a boundary-pushing Master of Ceremonies, Moderator, Brand Consultant for organizations and personalities, and advocate for women and the deaf and hard of hearing community from the Netherlands. She served as Head of Brand & Communications at TEDxAmsterdam Women until its merger with TEDxAmsterdam in September 2024.
Axelle Ahanhanzo is an award-winning social impact entrepreneur and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) changemaker, celebrated for blending lived experience with deep subject-matter expertise. Since launching LAUDACE in May 2023, she has partnered with global organizations like Google, WeTransfer, Coalition PLUS, and The Lancet to drive DEI transformation across STEM sectors. Under her leadership, LAUDACE earned the European Supplier Diversity Certification (ESDP) and launched initiatives like the Courageous Conversations Series to tackle systemic barriers through impactful dialogue and Flip The Neurotive, an advocacy campaign reshaping the stories around neurodivergence by elevating underrepresented voices. A Top 10 Finalist at TEDxAmsterdamWomen’s Talent Night 2023, Axelle earned the inaugural Omek Bicultural Achiever Of The Year award in June 2024.
Next to a career spanning sales, headhunting, communications, and DEI, Axelle holds an MSc in Corporate Communications and a DEI in the Workplace certification. Having lived in eight countries and speaking six languages, Axelle brings a unique cross-cultural perspective to creating more inclusive workplaces.
Ilze Smit is an expert on the gender pay gap at FNV, the largest trade union in the Netherlands. She is the project leader for FNV Women and campaigns to end unequal pay, working alongside women who have experienced this issue. She is also involved in advocating for new Pay Transparency legislation to ensure its ambitious implementation in the Netherlands. By highlighting that wage discrimination is widespread and that women cannot solve this alone, she aims to contribute to sustainable change and greater equality in the workplace.
July 4th
TEDxAW Conversations 2024 # 1
Back-to-Work – On durable reintegration after stepping out of the workforce
Taking breaks during one’s professional career can occur for various reasons, such as maternity leave, sick leave, family care, or even a well-deserved sabbatical. However, returning to the workforce can be a daunting and complex process, often leading to challenges in successful reintegration. Frequently, returning employees lack the necessary support for a durable reintegration, resulting in detrimental outcomes for both the employee and the employer.
How can we draw lessons from these experiences and shift our perspective? Rather than viewing returning professionals as burdens requiring additional care and resources, can we recognize the value they have to offer? The old myth of the CV gap can be challenged by the experience, maturity, dedication and commitment re-launchers bring to the table. Moreover, which companies are implementing effective strategies for sustainable reintegration, setting exemplary standards for others to follow?
Let’s explore these questions together during our first TEDxAW Conversation of 2024.
Roos works as a strategy consultant on topics related to organisational performance in both the social and private sector. She is originally from Amsterdam, where she lives with her husband and cats (and baby on the way ;-)). Outside of work she dedicates her time to strengthening the Young Patrons Circle of the Dutch National Opera and Ballet, an organisation close to her heart. She also loves (interior) design and always has new home decoration projects going on.
In 2022 Roos was treated for breast cancer and had to stop living life as she knew it for a period of 12+ months, including her job that she had just started a year before. It was a tough year, that she would have gladly missed out of but that also brought her many insights about resilience, self-care, love, friendship and other things that matter in life. Now fully recovered and ‘back in the saddle’ since a bit more than a year, she is happy to share these learnings and how her reintegration has worked out.
Charlotte is the Head of HR at Henkel. She has worked in the consumer good industry her whole career and has consistently championed DEI. She will be sharing her perspective and experience as a HR Lead when it comes to reintegration across different companies.
Eugenie Nunes is a partner of the global law firm Dentons and holds office in Amsterdam. She focuses on employment law and employee participation. In her practice, she also manages the cross-border Employment and Labor team at Dentons. She concentrates on legal project management in outsourcing and transfers of undertakings, HR compliance, reorganisations and cross-border employment. She is also an accredited mediator with international accreditation of Cedr, a mediation institute in London and the International Mediation Institute.
Eugenie is a Board member of the Dutch Legal Women Foundation, a networking platform for (now more than 4,000!) women working in legal positions.
She has various publications to her name in the field of cross-border employment and employee participation, is a speaker for educational institutes and regularly acts as a mentor for young professionals.
Anthony Seger is a behavioural change specialist with a career in talent management and retention spanning over a decade. Currently he is a Change Manager and consciousness coach supporting companies to create the conditions for conscious business practices to thrive. His focus is people projects, in particular employee acquisition, engagement & retention, conscious leadership & culture wellness.
As an active member of the LGBTI+ community and an equality advocate Anthony has made a tangible impact in both corporate and the non-profit sectors with his DEI expertise. He is an empathetic leader, a strategic innovator, connector, community builder and fire starter. His life’s purpose is to ignite love consciousness in everyone and reconnect us to our humanity.