Firm measures for women’s rights

The launch of ‘SheDecides’, her prompt reaction to one of Donald Trump’s executive orders, had international allure. Former minister Lilianne Ploumen has been a strong advocate of women’s rights throughout her career, including now as an MP for the PvdA (Dutch Labour Party). On 8 March, the UG will present her with the Aletta Jacobs Prize.

She’s never met Donald Trump. Nor his Secretary of State. By the time he was finally inaugurated, Lilianne Ploumen was herself an outgoing minister. So she doesn’t know first-hand what the impact was of her SheDecides campaign on the White House. But whatever the impact there, to the UG it was reason enough to award her the Aletta Jacobs Prize 2018, a prize the University awards every two years to a university-educated woman working for women’s rights.

Proud

One of the first decrees President Trump introduced in January 2017 was the ‘global gag rule’, prohibiting American government money from being used by organizations that enable or provide advice on safe abortions. This also signalled an abrupt end to all American government funding for organizations working to promote sexual rights in developing countries. Lilianne Ploumen, then Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, leapt into action. She considered it important that women should retain access to safe abortions and be able to decide what happens to their own bodies. If the Americans were withdrawing funding for these projects, it would have to come from somewhere else, she reasoned. From her own ministry, for example. The Netherlands responded enthusiastically to the minister who wasn’t prepared to let this go. Thousands of private individuals made donations even before her initiative became official. And when the SheDecides platform was launched in March at a conference with delegates from over fifty countries, it appeared that other governments were prepared to dig deep into their pockets. The running total now stands at around € 300 million. Ploumen is blatantly proud.

Letters of thanks

SheDecides was not started to irritate Trump, she is keen to stress. Her priority was the health of millions of women in developing countries. As a representative of a government, she also saw it as an opportunity to show solidarity with American women. Her message didn’t go unnoticed. Ploumen received hundreds of cards and letters of thanks. Trump, who had never expressed clear views on abortion before becoming president, turned to the global gag rule as a means of appeasing his Christian anti-abortion supporters. Optimists hope that this will be the end of it, but Ploumen isn’t convinced and is afraid that women’s rights in the USA will deteriorate even further. ‘It’s already happening with Planned Parenthood, for example, which gives advice about contraception. Trump is trying to throw a spanner in the works.’ According to Ploumen, the fact that Trump got away with his ‘grab them by the pussy’ comment has already undermined the position of women in the United States. Boys learn that comments like that are okay, and girls learn that you just have to accept them. It challenges the SheDecides concept that women have the right to decide about their own bodies.

Saying no

In this respect, Ploumen is pleased with the storm surrounding the recent ‘#metoo’ campaign. ‘We live in a culture that encourages silence. As a result, we never know the true size of a problem or how to deal with it.’ Ploumen doesn’t think this is something that can be solved by politicians. ‘Obviously we need to set a good example, but the change has to come from society. It must become acceptable to share these experiences; there’s little The Hague can do to influence this process.’

Some opinion makers, including feminists from her own generation, are concerned that #metoo heralds the start of a new ‘Victorian’ era of prudery. Ploumen resolutely denies this. ‘I fought for girls to be able to say “yes” if they fancy sex, not to prevent them from saying “no” if they don’t. It seems obvious to me that a girl should be able to say “no” and set her own boundaries.’

Quota of women

However, Ploumen does see a role for legislators on another front. ‘I’m in favour of quotas for women. I’ve done a U-turn on this one. There are still too few women in top positions.’ This isn’t because “women are less ambitious”. That’s utter nonsense. There are all kinds of psychological reasons, one of which is that people tend to appoint people who resemble them. You can only put an end to this by implementing strict measures.’ Academia also has a long way to go in this respect. ‘Although over half of students are women, the percentage of female professors is still under 50%.’ This does nothing to affect her appreciation of the academic prize she has just won. ‘They’re two different forces, working side by side. The University is showing how important it considers this subject by nurturing Aletta Jacobs’ legacy.’

‘Vote for a woman’

Ploumen gained her own seat in parliament thanks to a show of positive discrimination by voters. The then-ruling PvdA was dealt a fatal blow during the elections, winning just nine seats. Ploumen was number ten on the list of candidates. But thanks to the ‘Vote for a woman’ initiative, set up by mainly young women, including UG alumni Bianca Pander and Tessa Hagen, Ploumen was elected on the basis of preferential votes. The same happened to Isabelle Diks from GroenLinks (Green party). But women are still sorely under-represented in politics. In the March general election, the number of female MPs dropped from 60 to 54, which is slightly more than a third. And only 28 percent of municipal councillors are women. ‘Vote for a woman’ is encouraging suitable women to put themselves forward as candidates for the March 2018 local elections, a move applauded by Ploumen. Women often wrongly think that they wouldn’t be interested in local politics, perhaps because of the way local politics is currently organized. Ploumen loves private initiatives like this, and not only because it got her back onto the gravy train.

Pay gap

If she’s honest, she would rather have remained a minister. As an ordinary MP, her SheDecides campaign would never have grabbed the international attention it did. But it’s now a fact and Prime Minister Mark Rutte has agreed to continue the project. This was not a self-evident outcome, as two of the new coalition partners are less progressive than Ploumen when it comes to abortion and women’s reproductive rights. This was apparent in the speed with which women’s right to obtain a prescription for the abortion pill directly from their GP was banished. ‘There were certainly a few practical irregularities in the bill. But a government can still say: we’ll take a closer look and come back with a revised plan. The most likely reason for this not happening is the influence of CDA and Christenunie (both Christian parties).’ Ploumen and colleagues from other parties now intend to ensure that women can get a prescription for the abortion pill directly from a GP, although they’re not quite sure how they’ll go about it. But some things are actually easier as an ordinary MP, claims Ploumen. She wants to introduce a bill for pay parity to eliminate the pay gap between men and women, at least in part. This wouldn’t have been possible as a member of the PvdA governing in a coalition with the VVD (the right-wing liberals ). She is now free to gather support from other parties. And she’s already in the starting blocks. ‘I’ve got drive; I had it as minister too.’

This article was previously published in our alumni magazine Broerstraat 5 (December 2017). The UG will award the Aletta Jacobs Prize to Lilianne Ploumen on 8 March.