De Nieuwe Wereld: Do girls really have a harder time than boys?

(YouTube, 2 May 2025)

Watch the episode in Dutch here.

De Nieuwe Wereld is an online platform and YouTube channel founded by the philosopher Ad Verbrugge and the journalist Paul van Liempt.

Its motto is 'In-depth conversations in a time of change'. The platform sets out to give a voice to people from a range of disciplines — entrepreneurs, intellectuals, scientists — on the major shifts taking place in the economy and in society. In May, Marianne Driessen and Sybilla Claus, both contributors to 'Gender Rebels', joined Jelle van Baardewijk as his guests. Van Baardewijk lectures in business ethics and is a father himself. We learned a thing or two about men; with luck, Jelle learned a thing or two about girls and women.

Tellingly, many viewers in the comments section — and Jelle himself — kept steering the conversation back to the problems facing boys. That subject certainly deserves a book of its own, and we will read it with close attention. Go for it, lads.

The book behind the conversation

Both guests contributed to Gender Rebels (Uitgeverij het Haantje, 2024), a book of 368 pages with forty contributors that looks at the lives of girls and young women today. Marianne Driessen is part of the think tank behind the book; her own story is told in an interview with Pensioen in Zicht. More about the book can be found on the Gender Rebels page.

The English edition, Rebel Girls, was published by Spinifex Press in 2026 with fifty contributors from eight countries. The photographs of the women in the book are by Iratxe Álvarez; see the girls for portraits and quotes.

Related media

Other conversations about the book include the podcast with Bert Brussen, the podcast of Wierd Duk and the interview on Café Weltschmerz. See the complete media overview.