Dream & deed: “It makes me angry that women are still 2-0 behind in the job market”

But he did not kill, because between dream and act
there are hindering laws and practical objections

(from: Willem Elsschot, The Marriage)

Retirement may be the last thing Generation Z is thinking about, but they are the generation of the future. What do they dream about? What are they doing to achieve it? And what stands in their way? In this series we let young people talk about what the present and the future look like to them.

Laura Bas (24) from Amsterdam: “I worry about the waiting lists for mental health services. People who need help - and there are more and more since the pandemic - now have nowhere to turn.”

Who: Laura Bas (24). She recently finished third at Miss World Netherlands and will be starting the Culture Organization & Management master’s program at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam in September. Previously she had studied law at a university of applied sciences. In addition, she is ambassador of the project "Because I deserve it", where she, MEPs Agnes Jongerius and Vera Tax, facilitate workshops on the wage gap for (young) women. “In the Netherlands, men still earn on average 15 percent more per hour than women. It is my mission to change that and I want to continue to work for that.”

Lives in: In a studio apartment (24m2, paying 320 euros) in a social project in Amsterdam. “Half of the residents have permanent residency cards and the idea is for us to mingle. It’s a great place to live, and it’s less than ten minutes from the university.”

Works at: Freelance in contract law and as a final editor at the Amsterdam Student Union.

Enjoys: Writing, history, philosophy, psychology and “pretty much anything that ends in ‘y’, except for biology.”

What do you dream about?

“That as a management consultant I can storm boardrooms in the business world, preferably internationally. I would like to see women being much better represented in the labor market five years from now than they are today. I want to deal with issues surrounding themes like diversity and inclusiveness. I see it as one of the tasks of my generation to bring organizations up to date by tackling outdated processes. Take pronouns alone. At the Amsterdam student union that I work for, a number of people are non-binary. They want to be addressed as ‘them’ instead of ‘he’ or ‘she’. These are changes that our generation needs to start making, including in the business world.”

And what do you still hope to accomplish in your private life?

“I hope to see a lot more of the world. As a naive 17-year-old, I lived in Brazil for a ‘gap year’ and I learned a lot from that. In a country like that, you constantly have to put your own values and standards on the scale in order to be grounded there. It has broadened my view of the world, and since then I have been much less quick to judge. It also made me realize how good we have it in the Netherlands. I still go back to Brazil every two years to visit my friends and the family I lived with. It is very interesting to hear their views on certain subjects. Getting to know other cultures is one of the most inspiring things in life as far as I’m concerned. I don’t have flight shame yet, but I really hope that the experts in that field will be able to develop a sustainable way to travel responsibly.”

Wat is your dream for the Netherlands?

“I hope that in the future our country will be even more inclusive and diverse, more open-minded, and more accepting of others. There is now finally a woman of color (Sylvana Simons) and a transgender person (Lisa van Ginneken) in the House of Representatives. It would be nice if politics and business become more of a reflection of society. I would like the Netherlands to become a safer place for minorities. Because in terms of LGBTQ+ we are not there yet, and strict believers also have a hard time. I hope that we can all live together more peacefully. I wish for that outside the Netherlands as well. I would like to live in a world where we all respect people’s values, without stereotyping and prejudice.”

What does your dream retirement look like?

“I hope to work for an employer where the pension is well taken care of. In addition, I want to start investing money myself in order to retire earlier. I think we have to work until we are 70, which seems too long to me. My dad is about to retire and he and his girlfriend are planning to travel across America in a motor home, which I think is a great way to retire.”

What do you worry about when you think of the future?

“Polarization, and I think social media plays a big role in that. If I like pictures of people who say grass is purple instead of green, it causes me to only see content from people who think that too. That filter bubble provides a distorted picture of reality, which worries me. I’m afraid of the consequences.

What also worries me are the waiting lists for mental health services. People who need help - and there are more and more since the pandemic - have nowhere to turn. I live in a project with many permanent residency card holders who have been through the most horrible things. Many of them are struggling with traumas, but are not getting any help. When things go wrong, as a society, we cry out: ‘You see, it’s always those refugees’. But we should look in the mirror and as a society we should make sure that these people receive the help they need. These prejudices really bother me too. I am often asked if I don’t feel unsafe in my neighborhood, because many young men with a migrant background live there. No one ever asked me that when I lived in a working-class neighborhood in Amsterdam-North. I feel very safe here. If something were to happen to me here and I were to scream, I’m sure those guys would come running out of their units to rescue me.”

What makes you angry?

“Injustice. For example, it makes me very angry that women are still 2-0 behind in the labor market. That is trivialized with the argument that it is our own fault, that we like working part-time. But that is not the core of the problem. I’m not very happy about the loan system either. I think it’s totally archaic for people with less income to have less access to education. Because you can pretend that the student debt doesn’t matter, but try to find a house in this housing market later on, if you and your partner both owe 40,000 euros in student debt. And even without that debt it’s already impossible to do, especially for people with a modest income. The gap between the rich and the poor is only getting bigger.”

What stands in the way of your dreams?

“Policy choices. That as a society we are choosing to cut back on healthcare, that housing prices are skyrocketing, and that you can no longer go to college without incurring big debt. But it can always be worse. My friends in Brazil have to deal with corruption and a leader like Bolsonaro. For them, it’s even harder to make their dreams come true.”

What are you doing to make your dreams come true?

“I don't shy away from difficult conversations, I work hard and I am committed to the community organizations and causes I support.”

And what are you doing for a better world?

“I try to eat a lot less meat and I only buy second-hand clothes, with the exception of sportswear and underwear. In that respect, I really am a millennial. I also encourage others to go for their passions and ambitions and not to let themselves be led by criticism from others. That makes the world a better place too. I want people to know that failure is part of success. In the Netherlands, failure is seen as a bad thing, but you can’t become successful without falling down a few times. You learn a lot more by falling down and getting up than you do going up in one straight line.”

Don’t you want to go into politics?

“I get that question a lot. No, not right now, but I’m not ruling it out for the future. I secretly think the business world has much more power than politics. Many politicians start with the best intentions at the Binnenhof (Inner Court), full of passion to make a difference, but then find themselves in such a snake pit that it becomes difficult to live up to their ambitions. It may be easier to really change things in the business world.”