In the book Ware wonderdieren (True Miracle Animals), historian Margit van der Steen, fellow at Atria, describes the fascinating lives of the first female elected representatives in the Netherlands. The book reveals how women started actively participating in politics over a hundred years ago. Van der Steen describes the life stories of these courageous first female politicians in the period 1917-1927 and how they changed Dutch politics permanently.
In the book Ware wonderdieren (True Miracle Animals), historian Margit van der Steen, fellow at Atria, describes the fascinating lives of the first female elected representatives in the Netherlands. The book reveals how women started actively participating in politics over a hundred years ago. Van der Steen describes the life stories of these courageous first female politicians in the period 1917-1927 and how they changed Dutch politics permanently.
Women were given the right to stand for suffrage in 1917 and the right to vote in 1919, after which several hundred women dared to become active in municipal councils, Lower House, Provincial States and the Upper House. The history of pioneers like Aletta Jacobs has been well charted, but the stories of these first female representatives of the people have so far remained underexposed.
"The first women in politics had to overcome a lot of obstacles. A warm welcome was often not in the cards. The public too had to get used to the novelty of women in politics. They were viewed as 'true wonder animals', said one journalist."
Van der Steen describes how between 1917-1927, the first housewives, teachers, workers and lawyers campaigned for women's rights, fair pay, better education for girls and political equality. Male politicians had virtually no regard for issues such as better maternity care, consultation centres, school doctors, school feeding, playgrounds and school clothes.
New research on first women in politics
For her latest book, historian Van der Steen conducted in-depth historical research to chart the achievements and life stories of these female political pioneers. The life stories, photographs and illustrations reveal who these first female politicians were and why their choices and beliefs mattered, even though these women were legally incompetent at the time. These courageous women changed Dutch politics thanks to their perseverance.
Online hatred of politicians
Remarkably, 100 years ago, as now, women faced similar problems such as sexism, hatred and unequal treatment.Despite this, they made their voices heard and actually exercised political influence. Atria conducted research on online hate against politicians in 2024. This showed, among other things, that women in politics are disproportionately targeted for hatred, aggression and violence, especially in online media. This online hatred, specifically directed at women, limits female politicians in their functioning and political ambitions. Thereby, online hatred constitutes a barrier to equal representation in politics.
More about the author
Historian Margit van der Steen was supported in her research on the first women in Dutch politics by a fellowship at Atria. Van der Steen is a visiting researcher at the KNAW Huygens Institute, among others, and previously wrote the acclaimed biography on sociologist Hilda Verwey-Jonker.
The book Ware wonderdieren will be presented at the inspiration meeting of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) on 6 March 2026.This is open by invitation only. Chairman of the VNG, mayor of Utrecht Sharon Dijksma will be presented with a copy and author Margit van der Steen will give a lecture here.
