Article by Guido Cocconi

Today, international women’s day, Dr. Susanne Täuber, associate professor and Rosalind franklin fellow acknowledged during a protest organised for her case, that the judge’s verdict ruled in favour of the University of Groningen over the right to fire her for a damaged working relationship with the faculty of Business and Economics.

Dr Täuber announced the verdict to the large crowd of students that gathered in her support and said that it was disappointing but not unexpected, she now won’t be working for the university anymore but invited everyone to keep on advocating for a safer environment for women in universities and “not be silenced” over discriminatory acts.

Dr Täuber, as reported by Ukrant, had published in 2019 a paper on JMS where she highlighted “the immense discrepancy between the university’s gender equality policy on paper, and my actual experiences at work“. On 2021 a second report produced by the Young Academy Groningen over 26 staff members that experienced forms of discrimination and harassment concluded that “Complaints are typically managed in a way that protects the perpetrators and re-victimizes the reporters of misconduct” and advocated for reforms.

As reported by Ukrant, according to the university’s lawyer Dr Täuber “allegedly accused two of her supervisors of discrimination without the evidence to back it up”. The university has acknowledged the verdict but will not comment further on it.

The protest in front of the Academie building was a moment for many women to take the microfone at hand and speak out over the abuse and discrimination they had experienced in their life. Amongst them was also Alice a former Phd student and a victim of rape by a visiting scholar, the perpetrator was not stopped by the Dutch police and fled back to China.

Photo and Video Copyright: Guido Cocconi