Blog 1. Things that are the samen and things that are different
Let me start with the things that are the same:
- No one seated in the airplane seat next to me, just like last year.
- The exact same appartement 335 D at East 94th Street on Manhattan.
- The same password which is recognised by my phone, my laptop, and my kindle.
- Shopping at Aldi on 117th street for my groceries. Same lay-out of this supermarket, same amount of well-priced vegetables, fruits. Luckily, much lower prices for milk and eggs.
- Using my Wise debit card loaded with enough dollars so I do not pay for any conversion fees.
- The weather is about the same as last year too. Starting with a relative colder (10-12 C) first days and promising the climb to 16-22 C for the coming days.
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Blog 2. Without you there isn’t even half of me
What could I possible mean by that? Let me paint you a picture:
- My task as president of ‘Vrouwenbelangen’ is to further the position of women in the Netherlands’ in, basically, every field and concern. To do so, I have to be present at meetings. conferences, zoom-calls. But first I have to be (made) aware that these meetings are slated.
- I am invited by you, whoever ‘you’ are, to various events you organize in your field with your expertise. I show up, I get to really know you, your organization. A bond of co-patriots in women’s rights is built and strengthened. Without your invitations, time and again, I would not know your work, your goals, your field of women’s work and women’s rights.
- I say hi, you say hi. You explain what you are doing. Why you are doing it. This is not necessarily the same ‘you’ as in the above bullet point. It is just how interactions build trust and connection. How you pique my interest. How you point me to where rights of women need to be won.
Blog 3. CEDAW and the impact on discrimination of our health rights
In the last quarter of 2025 a group of older women’s organizations, the Platform Older Women Rights NL, wrote a shadow report “Older Women (Women50+) in the Netherlands’ and sent it into the Convention on the Eliminations of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) committee.
On the 6th of February 2026 the CEDAW committee of 22 women and one man had a ‘constructive dialogue’ with the Dutch government to discuss the Report of the Dutch Government itself (on how wonderful the kingdom is for all women) and the Shadow Reports of various organizations, or groups of organizations, on what the level of discrimination against women really is in the Netherlands.
We, the older women groups, had 3 main asks, but also 6260 words in 11 chapters on the state of discrimination of women in real life, especially when you are over 50.