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Dolle Mina (Mad Mina) was a Dutch feminist group founded in December 1969 that campaigned for equal rights for women. It was named after an early Dutch feminist, Wilhelmina Drucker. [1] It was a left-wing radical feminist activist group that aimed to improve women's rights through playful and humorous protest demonstrations. [2]
During World War II, ideas surrounding the role of women in society were in transition. Strong feminist values emerged in countries such as England, Germany and the United States, due partly to women being employed in factories or deployed in combat roles. During the post-war years, women who previously worked in factories were sent home and excluded from unions and other civil society organizations.
In the Netherlands, working women were fired when they got married and married women were prohibited from independently performing legal acts such as the conclusion of a contract. Dolle Mina emerged as part of the second wave of feminism, stemming from the socialistic youth group Socialistische Jeugd which wanted a new women's movement. They were inspired by campaigning women in the United States and by the Maagdenhuisbezetting (a major university sit-in) in Amsterdam.
Dolle Mina had a Marxist outlook. It brought attention to the struggle of women to gain equality in trade unions, which typically avoided expanding the rights of women members because this was perceived as requiring concessions by male "breadwinners". The group organised activist campaigns, including protests and publications, promoting women's rights to abortion, equal pay for equal work, childcare, and even access to public toilets.
Dolle Mina drew attention to the unequal rights of men and women with playful public campaigns. [3] In October 1968, the Man Vrouw Maatschappij (MVM, "Man Woman Society") was founded; a Labour Party sympathetic action group in parliament that aimed to exert influence to improve women's rights. However, the founders of Dolle Mina saw MVM as a conformist club that was part of the established order, so it opted for other purposes and methods. Some Dolle Mina members saw MVM as reformist, whereas they saw themselves as members of a new "grassroots" seeking more fundamental change and a democratic socialist society. Groups at the bottom of the community ("the base") had to be mobilized and this included student movements. This turned off some, including Ton Regtien [ nl ].
The founders of the movement were Dunya Verwey, Michael Korzec, and Alex and Rita Korzec Hendriks. Others who joined included Anne Marie Huub and her husband Philippens, Nora Rozenbroek, Friedl Baruch, Claudette van Trikt, Selma Leydesdorff, Marjan Sax, Miklos Racz, Loes Mallée, and Henriëtte Schatz.[ citation needed ] Joyce Outshoorn, who later was the first director of the women's studies department at Leiden University joined the group in 1970. [4] [5]
Dolle Mina attracted media coverage, mainly for its publicity-gathering events, which helped to establish the idea that well-organised and well-documented protests could contribute to the movement and could prompt a reaction from women's emancipation movements in surrounding countries, such as Belgium and Germany.
The first such event was the January 1970 storming of Nijenrode Castle, a private business university that was only open for men at the time. This was followed by the burning of a woman's corset at Wilhelmina Drucker's statue, the blocking of public urinals with pink ribbons to protest against the absence of public toilets for women, and cat calling men in the streets of Amsterdam. [3] Within a few weeks, Dolle Mina had drawn thousands of followers, first in Amsterdam, followed by the rest of the Netherlands and even Belgium. The group also 'kidnapped' movie-maker Pim de la Parra, for being the organiser of a beauty pageant. [3] [6] On 1 March 1970, Outshoorn participated with a group of Dolle Minas supporting abortion who exposed their stomachs across which was written ""Baas in eigen buik" (Boss of your own belly) at a major gynaecological conference. [5] [7]
Most of the acts were carried out several days apart, which resulted in weeks' long headlines about the Dolle Mina movement. The movement provided the media with 'ready-made' news, such as the pink ribbon demonstration. Activists for public events were selected for their media appeal. [3] Their use of the media, combined with shock and/or materials displayed in an unconventional way, was a significant reason for the success of the movement.
From inception, Dolle Mina made use of topic-specific working groups, mostly focused on issues such as abortion rights, daycare centres, equal payment for equal work and helping single mothers, but also including a theory group focused on education.
Johanna Elisabeth "Joke" Smit was a well-known Dutch feminist and politician in the 1970s.
Wilhelmina Drucker was a Dutch politician and writer. One of the first Dutch feminists, she was also known under her pseudonyms Gipsy, Gitano, and E. Prezcier.
Wim Hora Adema was a Dutch author of children's literature and a feminist, notable for being the co-founder of Opzij, founded in 1972 as a radical feminist monthly magazine. She was one of the best-known women of the Dutch second wave of feminism.
In the Netherlands, feminism began as part of the first-wave feminism movement during the 19th century. Later, the struggles of second-wave feminism in the Netherlands mirrored developments in the women's rights movement in other Western countries. Women in the Netherlands still have an open discussion about how to improve remaining imbalances and injustices they face as women.
Margriet is a Dutch weekly magazine for women of all ages, which publishes articles on fashion, beauty, health, nutrition, relationships, and society. Formerly published by Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen, it is owned and published by Sanoma after the latter took over VNU's magazine division.
Man Vrouw Maatschappij was a Dutch feminist action group, founded by Joke Smit en Hedy d'Ancona.
Atria, institute on gender equality and women's history is a public library and research institute in Amsterdam dedicated to research and policy advice on gender equality and to the documentation and archival of women's history. Its previous names were International Information Centre and Archive for the Women's Movement (IIAV) (1988-2009) and Aletta, Institute for Women's History (2009-2013).
International Archives for the Women's Movement was founded in Amsterdam in 1935, as a repository to collect and preserve the cultural heritage of women and make the documents of the movement available for study. The entire collection was stolen by the Nazis in 1940 and only small portions were recovered after the war. In 1988, the part of the archival collection which had not been looted by the Nazis became the foundational collection of the International Information Centre and Archives for the Women's Movement. A substantial portion of the archive was discovered in Moscow in 1992 and returned to Amsterdam in 2003. In 2013, the institution which houses the collection was renamed as the Atria Institute on Gender Equality and Women's History
Willemijn Posthumus-van der Goot was a Dutch economist, feminist and radio broadcaster. As the first woman to attain a doctorate in economics in the Netherlands, her work focused on the impact of working women on the economy. Recognizing that there were few sources, she joined with other feminists to create the International Archives for the Women's Movement in 1935. Writing reports on women's work, she refuted government claims that women working outside the home was of no benefit. First proposed in 1939, the Household Council, which she saw as an organization to foster training and organize domestic laborers was instituted in 1950. She founded the International Association of Women in Radio, as an organization for professional development and networking in 1949. As a peace activist, she was involved in the promotion of pacifism and believing women had unique qualities for solving world problems, she established the International Scientific Institute for Feminine Interpretation. In 1982, in recognition of her significant contributions to the Dutch Women's Movement, Posthumus-van der Goot was appointed as an officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau. In 2008, she, her husband and sister, were honored as Righteous Among the Nations by the government of Israel, for their fostering children during the Dutch occupation by the Nazis.
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The women's liberation movement in Europe was a radical feminist movement that started in the late 1960s and continued through the 1970s and in some cases into the early 1980s. Inspired by developments in North America and triggered by the growing presence of women in the labour market, the movement soon gained momentum in Britain and the Scandinavian countries. In addition to improvements in working conditions and equal pay, liberationists fought for complete autonomy for women's bodies including their right to make their own decisions regarding contraception and abortion, and more independence in sexuality.
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Nancy Sophie Cornélie "Corry" Tendeloo was a Dutch lawyer, feminist, and politician who served in the House of Representatives for the Free-thinking Democratic League (VDB) from 1945 until 1946 and then for the newly-formed Labour Party (PvdA) until her death in 1956. Born in the Dutch East Indies, Tendeloo studied law at Utrecht University, during which time she made contact with people within the women's rights movement. She became politically active in the 1930's and was elected to the Amsterdam City Council for the VDB in 1938. After World War II, Tendeloo was appointed a member of the House of Representatives for the VDB in the national emergency parliament, formed to rebuild the country and organise elections. In 1946, the VDB merged with other parties into the PvdA, which Tendeloo represented in parliament. She sat on two select committees and spoke in favour of women's rights issues.
Joyce Outshoorn is a professor emeritus of Leiden University. She served as head of the Women's Studies Department from 1987 to 1999. Simultaneously between 1992 and 2000, she was chair of the Netherlands Research School of Women's Studies. From 2007 to 2011, she served on the Steering Committee of the Feminism and Citizenship project (FEMCIT) funded the European Union. She was honored with the Career Achievement Award for 2009 by the European Consortium for Political Research.
Joke Swiebel is a Dutch political scientist, and a former policy maker, politician and activist. Since the 1960s, she has been involved with the feminist and LGBT movements. She served as first chair of the Federation of Student Working Groups on Homosexuality and on the board of the COC Nederland while a student. In the former capacity, she was one of the organizers of the first LGB demonstration in the Netherlands — and probably all of Europe — which was held on 21 January 1969. It was a protest against a discriminatory provision in the Criminal Code, introduced in 1911, that set a significantly higher age of consent for homosexual than for heterosexual contact.After earning her master's degree in 1972 from the University of Amsterdam, she led the political science library at that institution until 1977. She was involved in the creation of the women's studies program at the university and worked to coordinate between activist groups to ensure that neither gender or sexual orientation were the basis for discriminatory policies.
Saskia Holleman was a Dutch actress, lawyer and model. She became widely known in the Netherlands when a picture in which she was naked in a meadow was used by the left-wing, pacifist political party Pacifist Socialist Party for its electoral campaign during the 1971 Dutch general election. Holleman trained as a lawyer in the 1970s and she specialised in petty crime for law firms and later as an independent.
Nellie van Kol was a Dutch feminist, educator, and children's author also active in Belgium. She contributed to the cause of women and had a great influence on the development of children's literature in the 20th century.
Rita Mulier is a Belgian feminist author and economist. Writing for De nieuwe maand, she set up the Vrouwen Overleg Komitee and played a role in the women's liberation movement in Belgium. She focused on mother's rights in the workplace and held a post in the Flemish Community from 1991 until 1996. She was recognised with a baronetcy and published her autobiography in 1999.
Monika Triest is a Belgian academic, writer, and civil rights activist. After earning a degree in classical philology at Ghent University, she moved to Canada to teach at the University of New Brunswick in 1965. Three years later when she moved to Yellow Springs, Ohio to teach at Antioch College, Triest became involved in the civil rights and women's liberation movements in the United States. She participated in demonstrations against the Vietnam War and in favor of Roe v. Wade. While she was earning her PhD at the University of Cincinnati, she and Sylvia Tucker offered one of the first women's study courses at the university in 1971. After earning her PhD in 1976, Triest returned to Belgium and in 1985 became the first chair of the women's studies program at the University of Amsterdam, and first women's studies professor in the Netherlands. She continued to teach at various educational facilities until her retirement in 2008.
