‘Veterans’ of the women’s movement
On the 23rd of January 1937, a special dinner took place in Utrecht. It was organized by the Jongeren Werkcomité of the Nederlandsche Vereeniging voor Vrouwenbelangen en Gelijk Staatsburgerschap (Youth section of the Dutch Association for Women’s interests and Equal Citizenship). We do not know for sure, but it is possible that the women present were warmed to fill in a survey. The idea to ask veterans of the women’s movement about their biographical data originated from Rosa Manus (1881-1942), one of the three founders of the International Archives for the Women’s Movement in 1935.
The survey was conducted twice: once in 1937, and another time in 1947, when W.H. Posthumus-van der Goot (one of the other founders of the IAV) made a new attempt to collect material on the pre-war women’s movement. A total of 76 completed forms have been kept intact.
Francisca de Haan wrote in the journal LOVER 2003/3:
‘the forms… give a captivating, intimate, and sometimes unexpected view into the world of feminists of the first wave’.
Mien van Wulfften Palthe-Broese van Groenou stated:
‘As a housewife and mother I immediately used the “little flag of Women’s Suffrage” as a button. Thus proving that one can observe her duties both as a mother and as a propagandist while sliding behind the pram. My speciality was being a street propagandist’.
In the picture are Rosa Manus, Johanna Naber and Mathilde Cohen Tervaert-Israëls.
Source: Image Archive IAV (copyright photograph Stichtsche Fotopers); archive IAV inv.nr 472
