Underrepresentation of women is not about “quality”: Halsema

Inequality at the top of Dutch politics should not be described in terms of  ‘quality’, according to Amsterdam mayor, Femke Halsema.

At a conference she co-organised on International Women’s Day, Halsema publicly criticised justice minister David van Weel, who suggested a quarter of cabinet seats went to women because of a choice for ‘quality’ candidates.

“Listen to the new minister of justice who says, without batting an eyelid, that only a quarter of the new cabinet is made up of women because – as if echoing Mark Rutte – this time we are choosing quality and continuity,” she said, in an unscripted aside. “And no one’s said anything about it until now.”

In her opening speech, Halsema claimed there is an international war on women and women’s rights. She named places like Iran and Russia but also economic inequality in the West and domestic violence around the world.

Halsema also said the far right threatens female rights in Europe and America, one of few countries that has not ratified a UN convention to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women.

”Trump’s MAGA movement is spreading hatred of women and makes no secret of its desire to make abortion impossible everywhere’” she said.

”And, closer by in the UK, Reform is threatening to tear up the Equality Act. All radical and extreme right parties in Europe have an openly anti-feminist agenda.”

She claimed extreme voices online were aided by women with social media businesses promoting their housewifely pursuits. “They are hugely helped by tradwives who, like useful idiots, make their own careers at the cost of the freedom and independence of other women,” she said. “Almost 50 years after the UN convention on women, things are not good – and it is not good enough.”

The conference included speeches by Turkish-British author Elif Shafak, crime journalist and anti-femicide campaigner Saskia Belleman and global women’s rights advocates.