Lecture ‘The Liberal Struggle for Women’s Suffrage’

Maczek Memorial, Breda | March 6 | 19:30 – 21:00 (free admission)

Lecture by Patrick van Schie, Vice President of the European Institute on Communist Oppression (EIOCO) and co-author of the book ‘The Liberal Struggle for Women’s Suffrage’.

The foreword and introduction of the lecture will be given by Beata Bruggeman-Sekowska, Chair of the European Institute on Communist Oppression (EIOCO) and editor-in-chief of the Central and Eastern Europe Center.

The struggle for women’s suffrage is often associated with feminism in general and therefore placed on the left side of the political spectrum. Yet, liberals played an important role in the first wave of feminism. Classical liberal thinkers increasingly focused on the position and rights of women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This is not only about achieving women’s suffrage, but also about the role liberals played in other women’s issues after the first wave of feminism. For example, the position of women in labor and marriage law and the fight for the legalization of abortion. Developments in the Netherlands will be compared with those in surrounding countries.