More women taking city councillor positions

Women are gaining ground in the male-dominated political playing field in the Netherlands. Of all municipal council members who were elected in March, 28.3 percent are women, according to ProDemos, who published the figures in a report on Thursday. Female council members in local politics is slowly rising. In 1994, 22 percent of the municipal council seats were occupied by women, in 2010, this was 26 percent. The organization that published these figures also figured that left-leaning parties have proportionally the most female council members. GroenLinks, for example, has its council membership made up of 43 percent women. This is the highest percentage of all parties. After this, PvdA's female council members have 37.5 percent, and SP 35.6 percent. Lilian Janse from Vlissingen is the one and only female municipal council member for the SGP.