I am associate professor of Economic and Social History at Utrecht University.
I am an interdisciplinary scholar, combining social science theories and methods with historical analysis in both my research and teaching. My work focuses on how institutional and structural changes have shaped gender (in)equality in well-being outcomes—such as health, politics, household roles, and work—as well as in female entrepreneurship over the long twentieth century.
My PhD introduced new open-access data to trace global gender gap trends since 1900. In my postdoctoral research within a Horizon 2020 project, I examined how institutional complementarities account for the diversity of entrepreneurship across Europe and their policy implications. My current NWO-Veni project investigates the historical development of female entrepreneurship in Europe since 1900. The project explores the barriers women have faced in starting and running businesses, how these challenges have evolved, and the strategies women have used to overcome them. As part of this project, I co-edited a special issue of Business History titled “Where Have All the Business Women Gone?” (2023-2025).
In addition, I co-supervise three interdisciplinary PhD projects on gender equality in family firms, the role of associative order in well-being, and precarious work. I am also a core member of the interdisciplinary research platform Bottom-up Initiatives for Societal Change, under the Institutions for Open Societies strategic theme.
I have extensive experience designing and teaching interdisciplinary courses. From 2020 to 2023, I served as the History Board Member for the PPE bachelor’s program. In this role, I coordinated student skills training and led two curriculum development projects on interdisciplinary and professional skills. I also co-edited a textbook titled An Interdisciplinary PPE Approach to 21st-Century Grand Challenges (Routledge, 2026).
