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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.
The Republic of the Seven United Provinces, known as the Netherlands, was created through the Dutch War of Independence, which began in 1568 and ended with the Treaty of Westphalia. Women had a limited number of rights, including the right to enter contracts and the right to control their own dowries. Though they were still legally subordinate to men, widows such as Volcxken Diericx, an Antwerp publisher, and Aletta Hannemans, a Haarlem brewer, were allowed to continue their husband's business. Girls had no right to an education, and before widowhood, women were not allowed to own property or to participate in government. [1]
Industrialization in the Netherlands brought jobs to both men and women. Labour unions began organizing by the mid-19th century. In 1841, Anna Barbara van Meerten-Schilperoort founded Hulpbetoon aan Eerlijke en Vlijtige Armoede, the first women's organization in the Netherlands. Middle-class women began to find paid employment, first in nursing. The first department store in the Netherlands opened in 1860, and women began finding jobs as retail clerks. Kindergartens, which had been pioneered in Germany, spread quickly in the Netherlands and needed a workforce of trained young women to staff them. To train young women to teach primary school, middle schools for girls were established in 1867. [2] Young women with academic promise could petition for the right to be admitted to an all-male secondary school. Universities were closed to women until 1871, when Aletta Jacobs gained admittance to study medicine. [2] She graduated as Europe's first modern woman physician. Jacobs also became prominent in the women's suffrage movement in the Netherlands. She opened the first women's birth control clinic in Amsterdam in 1882. [3]
In the 1883 Dutch parliamentary elections, Aletta Jacobs petitioned for the right to vote, pointing out that she met all the legal criteria, but she was rejected from voting. [4] This event triggered the women's suffrage movement in the Netherlands. The immediate result was an amendment to the voting rights of the Constitution in 1887, to specify "male" inhabitants of the Netherlands had the vote, adding another barrier to the women's suffrage. [5]
In 1888, the Vrije Vrouwenvereeniging (Free Women's Movement, or VVV) was founded. This was soon followed in 1894 by the creation of a sub-group within the organization, the Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht (Organization of Women's Suffrage). [5]
Wilhelmina Drucker was less concerned about women winning emancipation—which she saw as easily attainable—than women winning equal opportunity in the workplace, a struggle she saw as facing much more resistance from men. [6] Yet, where other feminists in the country pressed for labour laws addressing the specific needs of women workers, Drucker was opposed. [7] In Drucker's view, "The state should not interfere with men or with women, nor invent a fictive competition between men and women. It should solely recognize people; members of society." [8]
Drucker was firmly on the radical edge of feminism in the Netherlands, but she gave speaking tours and published a popular feminist journal, Evolutie (Evolution). In 1899, she spearheaded a campaign to stop legislation that would ban women under 40 from jobs as teachers or civil servants; after a decade-long campaign, the bill was "crushed". [3] Aletta Jacobs co-founded the International Women's Suffrage Alliance in 1902. [3]
Women won the right to stand for an election as a candidate in 1917. They gained full suffrage in 1919. This was relatively early compared to most other European nations; only Finland and Sweden had given women the vote earlier. [4] Women had in part gained the vote to a political compromise "package deal" between socialists, liberals, and "confessionalist" parties. The confessionalists supported state funding for private schools, typically belonging to a religious denomination. This compromise system in Dutch politics was known as Pillarisation. In the years after women's emancipation, the confessionalists came to dominate moral discourse in the Netherlands, and legislation in support of confessionalist moral views was enacted (prostitution banned, 1912; abortion prohibited, 1911; advertising for contraception criminalized). [9]
A healthy economy and a rising standard of living characterizes life in the Netherlands during the 1920s. Women, however, faced a backlash against women's rights which reached into the workplace. Women's rights groups multiplied. [10] The international feminist organizations gained larger memberships as women worldwide continued to struggle for emancipation. Dutch women were active in such international organizations as:
Women were praised for their resilience throughout the Hunger Winter of 1944-5 when food and fuel were blocked by the Nazi military. A period of conservatism followed for several years, but two notable legal milestones were achieved during the 1950s: in 1955, following a motion by feminist Corry Tendeloo, the law changed so that women could no longer be forced from civil service jobs after marrying, and in 1956, married women became legally competent. [10] The marriage bar was removed in 1957. [11] [12] [13]
A 1967 essay by Joke Kool-Smits, "The Discontent of Women", was published in De Gids and is credited with launching second-wave feminism in the Netherlands. [14] [15] [16] The next year, a group of feminist men and women banded together to create the activist group Man-Vrouw-Maatschappij (Man-Woman society, or MVM). Its dual-gender composition made it rare among Western Second-wave feminist organizations, but it was similar to others in that its membership was predominantly middle or upper class and well-educated. [17] Dissatisfied with the lobbying efforts of the MVM, a more radical group was inspired. The all-female Dolle Mina society was founded in 1969, naming itself "Mad Mina" after pioneering Dutch feminist Wilhelmina Drucker. Dolle Mina had success as a consciousness-raising force during the 1970s, mainly through its use of imaginative protests, such as an outdoor "Discrimination Fair" to draw attention to the issue of equal pay for equal work. [18]
On 15 December 1969, the female employees of the cigar factory Champ Clark in Nieuwe Pekela called a wildcat strike to demand equal pay. They became the first women in the history of the Netherlands to go on strike. [19] [20]
The 1976 publication of Anja Meulenbelt's novel De Schaamte Voorbij (The Shame is Over) was another important piece of second-wave feminist writing in the Netherlands. The novel was confessional in tone, and made the connection between the body and language politics overt. [21] In the late 1970s, the fight for access to abortion, rape crisis centres, and women's shelters became a dominant focus of the feminist movement.
In 1980, the government was financially supporting 30 rape crisis centres in the Netherlands. [22] During the 1970s, feminist periodicals multiplied, such as Dolle Mina, Vrouwen, Opzij, Serpentine, Vrouwenkrant, and Lover, and there were several feminist publishing houses in Amsterdam, the best known being De Bonte Was (1972) and Sara (1976). [23] In 1982, an estimated 160 feminist groups were active in the Netherlands, covering 25% of Dutch towns. [24] The 1980s saw many victories for the feminist movement, including the disintegration of the male breadwinner logic as the Netherlands began to prioritize re-gearing the welfare state in favor of incorporating women into the workforce. [25] The Abortion Bill was passed in 1981, and came into force in 1984. [26] In 1984 married women also obtained full legal equality in family law - prior to 1984 the law stipulated that the husband's opinion prevailed over the wife's regarding issues such as decisions on children's education and the domicile of the family. [27] [28] In 1985, Dutch women obtained the right to pass their nationality to their children. [29] In 1991, the Netherlands removed the marital exemption form its rape law. [30] In 2000, in a move which remains controversial, the Netherlands overhauled its legislation on prostitution, liberalizing the laws and legalizing regulated brothels (although prostitution in brothels had been de facto tolerated throughout the second part of the 20th century). [31]
Despite having won many legal and social battles over the course of the 20th century, Dutch feminists are not ready to claim victory. Feminist activity continues in the Netherlands, and gender equality continues to be a topic of discussion in organizations, and in the media. Areas of concern remain the low participation of women in full-time employment and their low presence in top executive positions, [32] violence against women, [33] and discrimination against ethnic minority women. [34]
From the 1970s onwards, the Netherlands has started promoting policies based on gender equality; and has once been described as having "the most extensive and comprehensive [sex equality apparatus] in Europe"; this is largely due to the appointment of a State Secretary to oversee an Emancipation Council launched in 1977, and its implementation of policies at the local level with help from feminist activists recruited into government positions. [35] Women of colour have seen the need to create new organizations to advance gaps in meeting their needs: a Moroccan women's group was formed in 1992, and a Surinamese women's group was formed in 1996. [10]
Despite the Netherlands having an image as progressive on gender issues, women in the Netherlands work less in paid employment than women in other comparable Western countries. In the early 1980s, the Commission of the European Communities report Women in the European Community fount that "it is in the Netherlands (17.6%) and in Ireland (13.6%) that we see the smallest numbers of married women working and the least acceptance of this phenomenon by the general public". (pg 14). [36] In the following years the numbers of women entering the workplace have increased, but with most of the women working part time.
Nearly 60% of Dutch working women aged 25-54 worked part-time in 2001, compared to 15% in the United States, 25% in France and 35% in Germany; but where 25% of French women working part-time say they want to work full-time, just 4% of Dutch women do. [37]
Despite the government identifying this as a social problem in the 1990s, and introducing tax incentives to encourage women to find more paid employment, the opposite happened, and women found a way to use the tax incentives to reduce their working hours. [38] In terms of balancing work and home life, parental leave is much more generous in Sweden, for example. [39]
There is currently a great deal of debate in the Netherlands over whether women simply prefer to care for their children themselves and work reduced hours, or if higher costs are holding women back from seeking further employment. Economist, lawyer and journalist Heleen Mees wrote a book exploring the issue of women's low employment rate, called Weg met het deeltijdfeminisme (Away with Part-time Feminism) in 2005. She identified differences between Dutch and American culture that partially explain the discrepancy in working hours between women in the two nations. In her book, Mees discusses the American "marketization" of much of women's former household duties, such as using businesses for laundry, eating out, having groceries delivered, and other services, which are rarely available in the Netherlands. [40] Childcare is the largest expense for two-income families in the Netherlands, and since it is customarily paid by the hour, this may provide an incentive for families to reduce childcare costs by having the mother do more child-minding and less paid employment. [40]
According to The Economist , fewer men had to fight in the World Wars of the 20th century, and so Dutch women did not experience working for pay at rates women in other countries did. The wealth of the country, coupled with the fact that "[Dutch] politics was dominated by Christian values until the 1980s" meant that Dutch women were slower to enter into the workforce. [41] In 2011, the Netherlands, together with Germany and Austria, were identified by the European Commission as countries with a poor integration of women in the workforce; Jose Manuel Barroso stated "Germany, but also Austria and the Netherlands, should look at the example of the northern countries." [42] As of 2014, the Netherlands had the highest percentage of part-time women workers in the OECD. [43]
There has been criticism that the Netherlands has constructed a policy focused on emphasizing the alleged difference between 'liberated' ethnic Dutch women and 'oppressed' immigrant women, creating a discriminatory dichotomy of "us vs. them". [44] The CEDAW committee stated that "[t]he Committee remains concerned about the persistence of gender-role stereotypes, in particular about immigrant and migrant women and men, both of which are portrayed as being backward and having traditional views about women, denying their right to full development." [34]
Violence against women remains a problem in the Netherlands: according to a 2014 study published by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, the Netherlands had the fourth highest prevalence rate of physical and sexual violence against women in Europe, with 45% of women having experienced such violence, which is well above the European average of 33%. [45] The Netherlands was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights in 1985 in the case of X and Y v. the Netherlands, for inadequate prosecution of sexual violence. [46] In 2015, the Netherlands ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention). [47]
An important (and controversial) contemporary activist is Ayaan Hirsi Ali a Somali-born Dutch-American dual citizen activist, author, and politician. She is critical of female genital mutilation and Islam, and supportive of women's rights and atheism. [48]
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern societies are patriarchal—they prioritize the male point of view—and that women are treated unjustly in these societies. Efforts to change this include fighting against gender stereotypes and improving educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women.
Liberal feminism, also called mainstream feminism, is a main branch of feminism defined by its focus on achieving gender equality through political and legal reform within the framework of liberal democracy and informed by a human rights perspective. It is often considered culturally progressive and economically center-right to center-left. As the oldest of the "Big Three" schools of feminist thought, liberal feminism has its roots in 19th century first-wave feminism seeking recognition of women as equal citizens, focusing particularly on women's suffrage and access to education, the effort associated with 19th century liberalism and progressivism. Liberal feminism "works within the structure of mainstream society to integrate women into that structure." Liberal feminism places great emphasis on the public world, especially laws, political institutions, education and working life, and considers the denial of equal legal and political rights as the main obstacle to equality. As such liberal feminists have worked to bring women into the political mainstream. Liberal feminism is inclusive and socially progressive, while broadly supporting existing institutions of power in liberal democratic societies, and is associated with centrism and reformism. Liberal feminism tends to be adopted by white middle-class women who do not disagree with the current social structure; Zhang and Rios found that liberal feminism with its focus on equality is viewed as the dominant and "default" form of feminism. Liberal feminism actively supports men's involvement in feminism and both women and men have always been active participants in the movement; progressive men had an important role alongside women in the struggle for equal political rights since the movement was launched in the 19th century.
This is an index of articles related to the issue of feminism, women's liberation, the women's movement, and women's rights.
The history of feminism comprises the narratives of the movements and ideologies which have aimed at equal rights for women. While feminists around the world have differed in causes, goals, and intentions depending on time, culture, and country, most Western feminist historians assert that all movements that work to obtain women's rights should be considered feminist movements, even when they did not apply the term to themselves. Some other historians limit the term "feminist" to the modern feminist movement and its progeny, and use the label "protofeminist" to describe earlier movements.
First-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity and thought that occurred during the 19th and early 20th century throughout the Western world. It focused on legal issues, primarily on securing women's right to vote. The term is often used synonymously with the kind of feminism espoused by the liberal women's rights movement with roots in the first wave, with organizations such as the International Alliance of Women and its affiliates. This feminist movement still focuses on equality from a mainly legal perspective.
The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminist intellectualism. It emerged in the late 1960s and continued into the 1980s, primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which effected great change throughout the world. The WLM branch of radical feminism, based in contemporary philosophy, comprised women of racially and culturally diverse backgrounds who proposed that economic, psychological, and social freedom were necessary for women to progress from being second-class citizens in their societies.
Aletta Henriëtte Jacobs was a Dutch physician and women's suffrage activist. As the first woman officially to attend a Dutch university, she became one of the first female physicians in the Netherlands. In 1882, she founded the world's first birth control clinic and was a leader in both the Dutch and international women's movements. She led campaigns aimed at deregulating prostitution, improving women's working conditions, promoting peace and calling for women's right to vote.
The International Alliance of Women is an international non-governmental organization that works to promote women's rights and gender equality. It was historically the main international organization that campaigned for women's suffrage. IAW stands for an inclusive, intersectional and progressive liberal feminism on the basis of human rights and liberal democracy, and has a liberal internationalist outlook. IAW's principles state that all genders are "born equally free [and are] equally entitled to the free exercise of their individual rights and liberty," that "women's rights are human rights" and that "human rights are universal, indivisible and interrelated."
Equity feminism is a form of liberal feminism that advocates the state's equal treatment of women and men without challenging inequalities perpetuated by employers, educational and religious institutions, and other elements of society. The concept has been discussed since the 1980s. Equity feminism has been defined and classified as a kind of classically liberal or libertarian feminism, in contrast with social feminism, difference feminism, gender feminism, and equality feminism.
The feminist movement has affected change in Western society, including women's suffrage; greater access to education; more equitable pay with men; the right to initiate divorce proceedings; the right of women to make individual decisions regarding pregnancy ; and the right to own property.
Feminism is one theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes, even though many feminist movements and ideologies differ on exactly which claims and strategies are vital and justifiable to achieve equality.
Feminism in Germany as a modern movement began during the Wilhelmine period (1888–1918) with individual women and women's rights groups pressuring a range of traditional institutions, from universities to government, to open their doors to women. This movement culminated in women's suffrage in 1919. Later waves of feminist activists pushed to expand women's rights.
Latin American feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and achieving equal political, economic, cultural, personal, and social rights for Latin American women. This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment. People who practice feminism by advocating or supporting the rights and equality of women are feminists.
The Inter-American Commission of Women, abbreviated CIM, is an organization that falls within the Organization of American States. It was established in 1928 by the Sixth Pan-American Conference and is composed of one female representative from each Republic in the Union. In 1938, the CIM was made a permanent organization, with the goal of studying and addressing women's issues in the Americas.
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).
Feminism in South Africa concerns the organised efforts to improve the rights of the girls and women of South Africa. These efforts are largely linked to issues of feminism and gender equality on one hand, and racial equality and the political freedoms of African and other non-White South African ethnic groups on the other. Early feminist efforts concerned the suffrage of White women, allowing them to vote in elections beginning from 1930s, and significant activism in the 1950s to demand equal pay of men and women. The 1980s were a major turning point in the advancement of South African women, and in 1994, following the end of the apartheid regime, the status of women was bolstered by changes to the country's constitution. Since the end of apartheid, South African feminism is a contribution associated with the liberation and democratization of the country, however, the movement still struggles with the embedded conservative and patriarchal views within some segments of South African society.
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
Bertha "Betsy" Bakker-Nort was a Dutch lawyer and politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives for the Free-thinking Democratic League (VDB) from 1922 to 1942.
Louis Frank was a Belgian lawyer, philosopher and pioneer of the Belgian feminist movement.
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.
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