Last weekend a large majority of the SGP voted at the party's congress in favour of the motion of the party leaders. Women will be allowed to participate in discussions within the party, and be selected for local groups of the SGP.
De Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij (The Reformed Political Party) was founded in 1918 as a protest against the introduction of women's suffrage in the Netherlands. Even the Dutch public wondered why the party was allowed, for such a long time, to exclude women from the party. In the 1980s, a group of women joined the SGP, causing something of a shockwave through the party.
Statutes
Until then women were not even mentioned in the statutes, probably because the SGP never expected them to become members, assuming that it was very clear that the party was against women's participation.
By 1997, the group of women had grown to 20 and that year the party changed its statutes; from that moment on the women were not allowed to be a member, or hold office in the party committees. One of the women, Riet Grabijn-van Putten, came forward to protest against the change in statutes. The women's rights campaign group, Clara Wichmann Institute, and seven other organisations took the matter to court and won, which resulted in the axing of state funding to the party.
A Dutch court ruled last year that the party had discriminated against women and as long as the SGP refused to give women equal footing within the party, then it should not receive any public money.
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Chairman of the SGP Bas van der Vlies |
In the Netherlands, there's a powerful religious base behind many political parties; currently, the ruling party in the coalition government is the Christian Democrats, whose policies are loosely based on the bible.
The SGP is the oldest Dutch political party still in existence and it has been represented in the lower house of parliament continuously since 1922 and in past decades with only two or three of the 150 seats (two at the moment). The party has a loyal following of some 26,000 members in the so-called bible belt of the Netherlands, areas with a relatively large number of orthodox Christians, like in the provinces of Zeeland, Zuid-Holland, Gelderland and Overijssel.
Although the party strictly follows the teachings of the bible, the SGP is still in favour of a separation of Church and State. Other politicians and journalists credit the party's political leadership in The Hague with good debating skills and SGP chairman Bas van der Vlies argues that the bible says that women and men are equal but not the same.
Young members
It is not certain whether the party will get back its state subsidy of 1.2 million euros a year, because women are still not allowed to become ministers, or have a seat in parliament, or on municipal councils.
In reaction to the changes to his party, Van der Vlies said that he did not expect a lot of new members. He believes that the women who support the SGP also subscribe to the views of the party and will not be rushing to join up.
A comment from the youth wing of the SGP told a different story, though. They were very enthusiastic about the decision to allow female members to join, because a lot of younger members will now be allowed to become part of the 'mother party' SGP.
And Riet Grabijn-van Putten calls the decision of the party 'encouraging', but says she will only be satisfied when women get full membership, meaning they will not be barred from public office anymore.
Tags: founded 1918, political reforms, SGP, Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij, ultra-conservative religious, women's rights