Wil Velders-Vlasblom (2 May 1930 - 20 January 2019) was a Dutch politician and woman's rights activist. She was the first woman

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

, and later served as mayor of

Beverwijk Beverwijk () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. The town is located about northwest of Amsterdam in the Randstad metropolitan area, north of the North Sea Canal very close to the North Sea coast. A ...

. During the 1970s and a portion of the 1980s, Velders-Vlasblom was the face of the PvdA party in Utrecht.

Early life and education

Wilhelmina ("Wil") Velders-Vlasblom was born in

Schiedam Schiedam () is a city and municipality in the west of the Netherlands. It is located in the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area, west of Rotterdam, east of Vlaardingen, and south of Delft. In the south the city is connected with the village ...

, 2 May 1930. Her father was a coppersmith at a shipyard. She had four brothers. Velders-Vlasblom grew up in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

. Before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, her parents were members of the

SDAP SDAP may refer to: * Social Democratic Workers' Party (Netherlands), a Dutch political party founded in 1894 that later merged into the Labour Party (Netherlands) * Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany, a German political party founded in 18 ...

(predecessor of the PvdA) and she was then a member of the Arbeiders Jeugd Centrale (AJC). In 1943, the Meer Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs (MULO) she was attending was bombed, and she was unable to finish school. At the age of sixteen, she studied an administrative law course through a trade union where she learned about the " pay gap".

Career

After the war, she married and with her husband and young son, moved to Utrecht in 1950. Five years later, she became politically active in the PvdA, eventually becoming secretary of the Rooie Vrouwen in de PvdA, the women's organization within the party. Her activism included a woman's right to abortion. In 1969, she joined the Utrecht city council in 1969. In September 1974, she became the first woman alderman in Utrecht, and in November 1986, her appointment as mayor of Beverwijk followed. She retired from the position in June 1995. Velders-Vlasblom died in Utrecht, 20 January 2019 at the age of 88.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Velders-Vlasblom, Wil 1930 births 2019 deaths Aldermen of Utrecht Dutch women's rights activists Labour Party (Netherlands) politicians Mayors in North Holland People from Beverwijk Municipal councillors of Utrecht (city) People from Schiedam Women mayors of places in the Netherlands