Why I, nonetheless, voted for a woman
Yesterday I rushed to the polling station. The wine was already in the glass when I saw my voting card lying on the table. It is not only your duty but also your privilege to be able to vote. We women have only had the right to vote for a hundred years, and we must cherish that. My girl wanted to come along. In her bear onesie with her four favorite stuffed animals. But who to choose? I don't know how it is for you, but I certainly knew which party I wanted to vote for (and also very well who not), but to say that I had meticulously examined the profiles of all the candidates... Well, no. So I navigated between the one at the top of the list or the highest-rated woman.
For a long time, I thought it was nonsense to vote for a woman. Correction: for a long time, I thought it was nonsense to vote for a woman because of her being a woman. Especially from an emancipatory point of view. We are equal, so if the man has a slightly better profile, then I choose him. Giving someone preference based on gender feels like you need that little push and thus seems to confirm the fact that we would be less capable. So that's why I thought you should judge everyone on their merits.
Yet I have changed my mind. And that is due to a conversation I had yesterday. Madeleijn van den Nieuwenhuizen paid us an editorial visit. Madeleijn does everything (she is leaving for New York in August for five years to get her doctorate at the university) and has positioned herself as a sharp critic who points out journalistic errors on her Instagram account Zeikschrift. I invited her for a consultation.
Anyway. We talked about the socio-historical position of women. About how our mothers or grandmothers were required to resign if they were in government service and got married. Until 1957, women who married were officially and legally declared incapable of conducting business. Being incapable of conducting business meant that you could not take out a mortgage or insurance, could not travel independently, and had to hand over your salary to your husband. Legally equated with minors and the mentally disabled (that was the official term back then).
We women, we come from far. Just half a century ago, we were supposedly incapable of conducting business. Meanwhile, we study and work, we engage in politics. But we are still not completely socially equal (how often does a full-time working mother have to justify how she organizes her time and how she does that with her children versus a full-time working father?). So that’s why we need that little support. And probably also because women have been taught to be more modest and to hit the brakes on themselves much sooner than men. So that’s why I voted for a woman. I found it a bit unnecessarily traditional that the politician in question had a double surname, but I forgive her with love.
