As Youth Ambassador for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Gender Equality and Bodily Autonomy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Laura talks to young people around the world about these issues and advises the Ministry on policy issues. In April, she will join the Dutch delegation at a United Nations conference. Laura: "I will help negotiate for progressive legislation for young people regarding gender equality and sexual rights. I will also give a speech on behalf of the Netherlands."
In addition, last year she started her own project for gender equality in the labour market. "Here I worked with MEPs Vera Tax and Agnes Jongerius, among others, with whom I gave workshops on the wage gap and how to bridge it to almost one hundred young women. I have also given job application training at vocational schools and volunteered for various organisations such as Dress for Success." Laura also participated in Miss World Netherlands last year, where she came third. "I also used that platform to spread my message and reach out to organisations."
Awards
For her project, she was awarded the Changemaker award by Ambassadors of Amsterdam, for young people who make a social contribution to the city. She also won the Nouri Award during the Young Amsterdam Awards, where young people from Amsterdam are rewarded for their work in all kinds of categories, such as sports and art. A complete surprise, says Laura. "I came to give a speech about my work as a youth ambassador. Afterwards, I wanted to leave the stage, when Najib Amhali, the presenter of the event, asked me to wait a moment. Then it turned out that I had been given the Nouri Award, an award that was created for young people who dedicate themselves to society."
The awards motivate Laura to continue her work on gender equality, she says. "Of course, you do this for intrinsic reasons because you want to see things differently. But to get this recognition is a nice encouragement."
Study
Does Laura still have time for her master's degree next to all these activities? She laughs: "My master's is full-time, but I am actually working at Foreign Affairs four days a week. I do my master's mainly on Fridays and at the weekends. But it helps that I really enjoy both my work and my master's, and it fits together very well.”
Laura likes the master's in Culture, Organization and Management, she says. "It is organisational science but then very much on a social level. One moment I get lectures on power relations within organisations, and the next I walk into the ministry and I can immediately see how that works in practice. The knowledge I acquire during my master's, I use at work to assess in group situations how people react to each other and how the relationships lie."
Where does her motivation for women's rights and gender equality come from? "I was raised by a single mother. She always worked four days a week, and as a child, I noticed that there is a stigma against working mothers. That bothered me even then," says Laura. "When I told work about my ambitions when I was 20, I was often told that my priorities would change if I had children. Twenty years had passed and nothing had changed! As a society, we are missing out on so much talent because of the social pressure on women to work part-time."
Laura is youth ambassador until October, and she’s not sure yet what will come after. "But gender equality and youth participation will definitely be a recurring theme throughout my life and reflected in my career. I'm going to enjoy it and see what comes my way."