The Ladies of Amsterdam. A city's history written by women's lives

Amsterdam — a city of feminism that won… a very long time ago

The women of Amsterdam are clever, strong, independent and stubborn. And they have always been so. Many remarkable heroines left their mark on the face of the city. Each left her own: one drew a delicate flower on the city’s cheek, another left cutting scars, and yet another healed them.

Together we will walk through the places connected with the outstanding and simply vivid ladies who shaped the fate of Amsterdam. Among them are formidable businesswomen and adventurous prostitutes, respectable philanthropists and courageous women doctors, fighters for women’s rights and almost genuine witches, desperate émigrées and repeat offenders, magnificent queens and simple maids — and many more women, all unlike one another, without whom the Amsterdam we know would have been impossible. You will hear their stories: cheerful and sad, breathtaking and tragic, grand and deeply human.

Did you know that the first documented instance of Dutch feminism dates back to the middle of the sixteenth century? It was then that the women of Amsterdam showed powerful men, in word and deed, what happens when their interests are ignored.

There is a woman in Dutch history who made literally everyone fall in love with her, anyone who saw or heard her even once. Her singing enchanted, her poems made people laugh and cry, her beauty and gentleness drove men out of their minds. And her name was utterly unique, the only one in the world — and thoroughly strange.

She knew everything about life on the other side of the red windows — yet she was a virgin. She lived a long life helping women in whom nobody believed, including themselves. She was respected, admired and trusted by everyone, from prostitutes to Queens.

Such an elegant façade adorned the entrance to a women’s “house of correction” — the Spinhuis. Put plainly, a women’s prison, which served several different purposes at once, including a highly unexpected one. And even in this field the Dutch turned out to be ahead of the whole planet.

This lady appeared to be an ordinary thief who robbed houses. And her fate turned out accordingly — that is, tragically. But her persistence, her fearlessness in the face of punishment and, as a result, her exceptionally rich and gripping criminal biography inspired a writer of her time to create… a comedy.

Picture seventeenth-century Europe: a purely male world in which a woman has only one purpose, to bear children. Yet even then there were women who hit a genuine jackpot in life, in every sense of the word. Among them was Amsterdam’s Flower Fairy, after whom one of the charming little bridges on the famous canals is named.