If it’s up to the voter, 459 women who were in an ineligible place will go into city councils. This has been calculated by the Stem op een Vrouw foundation, which encourages voters to vote for women, based on the official election results. According to the foundation, 90 percent of these women were chosen instead of a higher-ranking man. In total there are about 8,500 councillors.
According to Stem op een Vrouw, 37 percent of the elected candidates are now women, in the seventy largest municipalities 41 percent. In 2018, 70 women were elected with preferential votes in the seventy largest municipalities. This year it was one hundred and eighty women. The new city councils will be installed this week.
Not every woman who is elected with preferential votes takes her seat. Anne Prins of the SGP in Houten was in place fourteen on the list and received so many votes that she could become a councilor. However, she gives up her seat. 19-year-old Kim Faber, who was number two on the GroenLinks list in Veenendaal and received more votes than number one, is also relinquishing her seat and will temporarily start working as a shadow councilor – she will join the party leader in the coming period.
Two women from student party STIP in Delft also reject their seat. This is because they had agreed with the party to stick to the order of the list.
More female SGP members in politics: it remains difficult
Very young or no time
Devika Partiman, chairperson of Stem op een Vrouw, says that the vast majority of candidates who are elected with preferential votes do take the seat. “But there are always examples of candidates who ultimately give up. Every now and then there’s someone who is very young, or someone who can’t get through in terms of time or really didn’t expect to be chosen.”
In the municipality of Goes, three women were elected by preferential votes. At SGP/ChristenUnie, Esther van de Vreede (number six on the list) achieved the preference threshold with 230 votes. However, she has decided not to take the seat. “If you want to become a councilor and do it well, you have to have the time. It will keep you busy for sixteen hours a week. That is not feasible next to my job and family,” says Van de Vreede. She didn’t want to be high on the list, nor did she actively solicit votes. “In recent years, the SGP/ChristenUnie in Goes had four seats, so I did not expect to be elected. I was the first woman on the list. That probably played a part.”
decided in advance
Van de Vreede is aware that people have given her the confidence to take a seat on the city council, but believes that she cannot fulfill that task at the moment. When she sensed that there might be a seat on the horizon after all, she decided beforehand not to take it. She does want to play an active role within the municipality, but not as a councilor. “I know how much work it is and I also have to be realistic.”
This is not to say that she does not see herself as a councilor in the future. “I find it difficult to estimate how the flag will look in four years. I do have the ambitions, because I have been politically involved since I was twenty years old,” says Van de Vreede. For the time being, she will remain active as a citizen’s committee member within the municipality. “It is more manageable in terms of time. I want to play a role within the municipality and that is possible in this way.”