A personal story about #IWD's in the Netherlands

In the Bold & Brilliant invitation sent by Dr. Jocelynne Scutt I was introduced as a speaker. I studied in Groningen (at least 2 hours by train from Amsterdam) and have lived in Amsterdam since 1985. I have represented International Alliance of Women (IAW) in the Board of European Women's Lobby (EWL) since October 2014. I attended several annual meetings of IAW including Reykjavik (2011) and Berlin (2018). I have been working as an expert women in decision-making since 1990. As a retired professional I still publish blogs (Note 1) and tweets about women in politics in order to support both IAW @womenalliance and EWL @EuropeanWomen. I still am an entrepreneur Social Media 4 Boomers. As a student I became a conscious feminist in 1979 partly as a result of talking to members of my herstory group 'the fifties' about abortion and the right to decide as a woman to have one. She Decides movement or being a boss in your own belly still is an important subject for us feminists of all walks of life. As a student in social and political history in Groningen I went to an event on March 8 where prostitutes from Amsterdam were talking about their sex work. This strategy of talking with is very, very important and is from where we - as feminists - have come! As a conscious feminist in 1996 I went to the city hall of Amstelveen as part of my job seeking challinge to attend a lecture by Marianne van den Boomen about a new opportunity: Internet! Her book subtitles Internet ABC for women. I reread her lecture in 2010 and connected it to the Aletta Jacobs (Note 2) speech at 8.3 by the first woman of the Netherlands who became an EU Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, in 2004. As a woman in politics in 2019 I was a candidate at place 15 in the Elections for the European Parliament (Note 3). Since the summer of 2020 I have supported the campaign 'Omdat ik het verdien' / 'Because I deserve it' (for equal pay) at Instagram by giving likes and comments. This campaign is inspired by the example of Iceland. In 2021 I liked on Insta at Happy International Women's Day "I'll tell you what I want, what I really want ... Concluding from the Netherlands to all of us in 2021 I shared Anouk You Tube It's a New Day. This video is dedicated to the ones leading the way like Emma Gonzalez (USA), Frida Kahlo (Mexico) and Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand) (Note 4). Quote "A life without purpose is no life at all". My personal vision since 2010 is: remain developing your electronic skills (eSkills): 1st Internet, 2nd social media and 3rd since corona pandemie how to Zoom. In order to reach a gender equal society it is important to remain healthy and develop electronic skills (eSkills) step by step and use them as a strategy: frapper toujours (always hit!) Note 1 blog Women's economic independence 1995-2020 at angerman.europa.blogspot.com Note 2 Aletta Jacobs 1854-1929 is the first woman to attain a PhD in the Netherlands on 8th March 1879. For a quarter of a century she was at the head of the Dutch Women's Suffrage Association and is also a BIG inspiration in the herstory of IAW! Note 3 Photo Aletta & Arina at Elections European Parliament in Amsterdam.

Note 4 I received this You Tube with subtitles in Dutch by Anouk by WhatsApp twice at IWD 2021.