Women’s empowerment advocate Georgina Lara Booth wins 2024 Dianne Bevelander Prize

Masters' student was recognised for her work as social entrepreneur.

Women’s empowerment advocate and Masters student, Georgina Lara Booth, has been announced as the winner of the 2024 Dianne Bevelander Prize.

“We are happy to announce Georgina as the third winner of a prize that was inaugurated in 2022 to honour the life and work of our founder,” said ECWO’s Executive Director and Dianne Bevelander Prize jury chair, Prof. Hanneke Takkenberg. “Georgina might still be a student but she embodies the activist spirit that drove Dianne forward, and her work as a women’s empowerment advocate, particularly through her two start-ups, is deeply inspiring and acts as a role-model for others. She really brings to life Dianne's belief that you can lead from wherever you are."

Two start-ups embody Booth’s social entrepreneurship

Booth is passionate about driving systemic change for women. While a master of law student in internet, intellectual property and ICT law, with a focus on artificial intelligence, Booth has created two startups to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in the healthcare industry and the legal industry. Femalid, her medical startup, is a female medical hardware startup to promote gender equality in healthcare through equitable medical design. Her legal/tech startup is an AI-based storytelling solution to empower female victims of domestic and sexual abuse in addition to other crimes that mostly women experience.

Earlier this year, Femalid was named the winner of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam’s Entrepreneurship Startup Launch and CaseCanvas, her legal/tech startup, was recognised at the Amsterdam Justice Entrepreneurs Legal Startup Pitch Competition of the University of Amsterdam. CaseCanvas also recently won the Ideation Award at the University of Amsterdam's Economics and Business School’s Challenge, which provides a platform for students to showcase and develop their innovative ideas, related to societal and entrepreneurial issues.

Committed to continuing Bevelander’s legacy

“I am truly honoured to receive such a meaningful prize that celebrates the life of ECWO founder Professor Dianne Bevelander,” stated Booth. “I am committed to continuing the legacy of such inspiring female pioneers to further gender equality and strengthen the advancement of women in all aspects of society and within organisations.

“Although women have made significant progress, society still has a long way to go to achieve systemic change globally. It means the world to me to receive a platform through this prize to bring attention to my efforts to drive systemic change for women across various industries – ranging from journalism, filmmaking, writing and women’s empowerment advocacy to my social entrepreneurship in law (with my AI-based LegalTech startup to empower female victims of domestic and sexual violence) and healthcare (with my female medical startup to promote gender equality in the medical sector through equitable medical design). I extend my heartfelt thanks to the jury, led by Prof. Hanneke Takkenberg, for their support and recognition.”

Booth was chosen following an open nomination process by a jury comprising Prof. Takkenberg, Dr Natalie Cleton (Prof. Bevelander’s daughter and adjunct faculty of ECWO's Women in Leadership programme), Karen de Sousa Pesse (2023 Dianne Bevelander Prize winner), Prof. Nicola Kleyn (Extraordinary Professor, Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria), Marguerite Soeteman-Reijnen, former Chairman Aon Holdings, and Christine Balch, Director European Affairs at TNO. This year’s call drew an impressive number of nominations from a diversity of industries and backgrounds.

“Dianne Bevelander believed that we can all lead from where we stand,” commented jury member Cleton. “She believed we should make noise and move mountains in gender equality no-matter your background, age, education or gender. We certainly believe that Georgina imbodies this by leading gender equality and making noise in a variety of ways. Dianne would have been inspired to meet her and we hope this prize will inspire her to continue her journey in striving for gender equality.”

As the winner of the Dianne Bevelander Prize, Booth will be awarded a sum of money to be used for a project – of her choosing – that amplifies gender equality. The prize will be handed over during ECWO’s 2024 conference, which will also celebrate ECWO’s 10-year anniversary and take place on Friday 15 November 2024.

More information

About Professor Dianne Bevelander

A true pioneer of gender equality in organisations, in 2011, in her role as Associate Dean for MBA Programmes, Professor Dianne Bevelander established the first all-women leadership elective as part of Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University’s (RSM) MBA programmes. In 2014 she founded ECWO as a centre of teaching, research, advisory and advocacy, focusing on redressing the gender imbalance in organisations and empowering women to reach their full potential, create communities and drive change in society. Prof. Bevelander died in August 2021 after a nearly three-decade career at RSM.

About ECWO

The Erasmus Centre for Women and Organisations (ECWO) is committed to fostering inclusion. Its founding purpose in 2014 was to empower women and to create a level playing field by building communities for organisational change. A decade later ECWO has expanded its perspective to embrace a wider vision of inclusive prosperity in the world. Its new mission is to create a sense of belonging for everyone within organisations through diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), anchored in social safety. ECWO strives for settings where everyone feels valued, respected and supported. It conducts research and produces evidence-led educational programmes, events, coaching, advocacy and advisory services. ECWO stays true to its roots, and has evolved to recognise that achieving true inclusion and equity requires encompassing all, regardless of gender or identity.

About the Dianne Bevelander Memorial Fund and Prize

Over three decades at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM), Professor Dianne Bevelander put gender balance, equality and diversity firmly at the top of the agenda – not just in Rotterdam but across the international business and academic community. The Dianne Bevelander Memorial Fund continues the pioneering work of Professor Dianne Bevelander through a fund that supports women and promotes gender equality. Inaugurated in 2022 to honour an individual who has furthered gender equality during the previous year, the first Dianne Bevelander Prize was won by Geke Rosier, the founder of RightBrains, followed by Karen de Sousa Pesse, senior executive at Salesforce, in 2023.