ABSTRACT
Watching the party leaders campaigning for the parliamentary election of 15 May 2002, one is inclined to conclude that only men participate in politics in the Netherlands. Not one woman is present in the many televised debates with party leaders. No colourful distraction, only dark grey, dark blue and black suits, light shirts and suitable (not too flashy) ties. However, when one takes a closer look at the different lists of candidates for these parliamentary elections, one finds the names of women candidates in second place on these lists. With the exception of the party List Pim Fortuyn, so named after the leader and founder of the party, and the small religious parties, all other political parties placed a woman candidate second. The outgoing governing parties, PvdA, VVD and D66, nominated their women ministers, while the opposition parties selected their most known women parliamentarians for these slots. Women candidates were also found in other positions on the lists, with the progressive parties leading with 40-45 per cent women candidates and the Christian-Democratic and conservative parties following with 25-35 per cent. So although the absence of women politicians on television during the 2002 election campaign consolidated the image of politics as a male monopoly, the electoral system ensures that the moment the votes are cast, women will enter the parliament in relatively large numbers. We therefore start this chapter with a short description of the electoral and party system of the Netherlands. In the second section the evolution of women’s representation in parliament is discussed. Legally women’s representation of women began in 1917 when women were granted the right to stand for election, but in practice it took until the end of the 1970s before a substantial number of women participated in both government and in parliament. This section discusses the relevant players in getting more women into politics: women’s organisations, political parties and the Dutch government. Obstacles to women’s participation in parliament and strategies to overcome these barriers are discussed in the third section. Questions as to whether their presence has changed the political agenda and performance of the politicians are addressed in section four. The closing section deals with the future. Politics in the Netherlands is in turmoil as it is in many European countries. Many citizens are turning away from the traditional parties and new parties enter the political arena addressing more explicitly than ever before the issues of immigration and concerns about personal and collective safety. In the Netherlands the 2002 parliamentary elections led to a change in government: a
right-wing government replaced a centre-left wing government. The emergence of new parties, both at the national and local level has resulted in a decline in the political representation of women. The new parties seem to be less convinced of the necessity of gender balanced candidate lists. The question is now whether the upward trend in women’s political participation was after all not a trend, but a short upheaval. Can we really speak about a change in attitudes of political parties and government in terms of a greater sense of gender equality and a greater willingness to sharing power or is the relative high representation of women just a coincidence?
