Margriet is celebrating. The magazine brand is celebrating its 85th anniversary. To commemorate this anniversary, the editors are launching something special – in addition to a 212-page anniversary issue -: the Margriet Museum. The museum takes a look at the emancipation of Dutch women and the acquired women’s rights, based on the era that has been recorded by Margriet’s editors for 85 years.
The history of Dutch women
The first edition of Margriet appeared on September 30, 1938 and was then a 12-page supplement to the magazine ‘Week in Beeld’, which can be regarded as the predecessor of Nieuwe Revu. A permanent part of the weekly magazine was the section ‘Margriet knows what to do’. A section in which readers asked their questions. “If you look at the topics discussed in ‘Margriet knows what to do’, you can read the history of Dutch women in them,” says Petra Vethman, deputy editor-in-chief of Margriet and compiler of the Margriet Museum. “The entire development of what Dutch women are or have become now is reflected in those 85 volumes.”
‘That doesn’t fit in a women’s magazine’
‘Margriet knows what to do’ was written for many years by Alma van Eysden-Peeren (1897-1978). She was the only editorial member in Margriet’s first years. Vethman: “From the beginning, women approached the editors with their personal problems. Letters dealt with simple household questions, such as: how do I get a stain out of my clothes? Or how do I make something from my barley ration? But letters also came in about heartbreak, domestic violence and how to deal with a love triangle. The editor-in-chief and the publisher, De Geïllustreerde Pers, did not allow these questions to be published. ‘That doesn’t fit in a women’s magazine.’ But Alma van Eijsden did answer those letters by writing back to these women in a personal capacity.”
Margriet knows what to do
Vethman says that the section ‘Margriet knows what to do’ was extremely popular. “When Margriet was banned from publishing by the German occupiers in 1943, women continued to send in letters. After the war, thousands of unopened letters were waiting for the editors. After the war, this column became so popular that a team of sixteen young women was needed to answer all the readers’ letters.”
In addition to Margriet’s advice, many new question-and-answer sections followed in the post-war years, including a medical and an educational section.
Margriet: 4000 editions in 85 years
In 85 years of Margriet, more than 4,000 editions have been made. For the Margriet Museum, highlights had to be found from that endless archive. How are you going to sort through all those piles of magazines? Petra Vethman collaborated with journalist and historian Alies Pegtel to put together the Margriet Museum. “You really need someone who can use a helicopter view to make choices about what you can highlight and what you cannot. Otherwise you lose the overview.”
Housewife’s happiness
In the first years of Margriet, Vethman and Pegtel found that the woman’s perception of the world was mainly focused on what happens at home. “A woman’s greatest happiness was the well-being of her husband and children,” Vethman explains. “Until the 1950s, Margriet was full of household advice, etiquette, DIY fashion, and medical and educational tips,” says Vethman. “So you could say that the saying was true until the 1960s: ‘the only right of the Dutch woman is the kitchen sink.’ You must also realize that the Legal Incapacity Act applied until 1957. It stated that as a woman, after you got married, you were under the legal authority of your husband, which meant that you could not, for example, open a bank account. And it was not until 1955 that the Civil Service Regulations were abolished, which stipulated that women in government service were compulsorily dismissed on their wedding day. ”
Vethman explains that Margriet has had more and more room for human interest since the 1950s. “Attention was paid to many more aspects of life, than just the household. Love, education, work and personal development.” The first social topics are also discussed in Margriet. The emancipation of Dutch women is slowly taking shape.
First sign of emancipation
The sixties arrive. Margriet involves her readers in major public surveys on topics such as love, marriage and sexuality. Editor-in-chief Joop Swart, who has been in charge since 1959, senses the first signs of emancipation. He looks at the phenomenon of the public survey from the French Marie Claire and immediately sees the possibilities. Such a broad survey offers the opportunity to pay attention to the changing spirit of the times, without the magazine having to take a position on it.
The sixties were Margriet’s heyday. In 1965 the magazine had no fewer than 821,000 subscribers, who received a complete book of 184 pages every week.
“In the 1960s, Margriet really started to break new ground in emancipation,” says Vethman. “The very first major story about the pill was published in the mid-1960s. Margriet also removes topics such as menopause and unwanted childlessness from the taboo atmosphere.”
Dolle Mina’s at Margriet’s editorial office
Despite the fact that Margriet does pay attention to emancipation, on February 20, 1970, the Dolle Mina action group stormed the editorial staff with air fresheners to ‘cleanse Margriet from intoxicating the Dutch housewife proletariat’. In the 1970s, Margriet navigated between taking a stand for emancipation and representing a large group of Dutch housewives who were simply not there yet. In the 1970s, emancipation was mainly the voice of highly educated women.
In 1972, Hannie van den Horst was appointed as the first female editor-in-chief of Margriet (and at a Dutch general magazine at all). Van den Horst started in 1946 as a letter editor for ‘Margriet knows what to do’. She develops the ‘sandwich formula’ for Margriet. To make the serious emancipation stories digestible, they are packaged between articles about fashion, cooking and human interest. Margriet continues to make progress with stories about the VOS course (Women Orientate themselves on Society) and the Mother Mavo and pays a lot of attention to working women.
First generation of full-time working women
Petra Vethman cannot help but conclude that Margriet has captured very well how Dutch women have developed over the past 85 years. “Now women are putting themselves first. In which your own development is important for your happiness. Women no longer derive their identity from their partner and family,” Vethman explains. Yet she was surprised at how long the subordinate position of women in society has lasted. “It wasn’t until the late 1980s that it became ‘normal’ for women to work, albeit part-time, because at that time childcare was still unaffordable and working full-time was still not done. It was only in the 1990s that, thanks to the influence of political leaders such as Hedy d’Ancona, millions were allocated to childcare
became available, making it easier for women to work. However, ‘the guilt of the working woman’ was still a recurring topic, because you could develop yourself, but it could not be at the expense of your role as wife and mother.”
She says that she, like many other colleagues in the Margriet editorial office, belongs to the first generation of women who have been able to work full-time while having a family. “And that is also something to think about.”
Calvinistic versus hedonistic
Margriet’s social involvement has still been an important theme since the 1950s. The magazine now has a strong focus on women aged 60+. “That target group of vital, older women is becoming increasingly larger,” says Vethman. “They continue to work longer and continue to develop. They want to stay fit and healthy and get the most out of their lives. This target group has a relatively large amount of time and money. They want to enjoy life and still make big decisions, such as a career change or a divorce.” The contrast with the frugal and Calvinist 1950s could not be greater.
Visit the Margriet Museum
Would you like to visit the Margriet Museum? This is possible (also for non-subscribers) via the link www.margriet.nl/Margrietmuseum