No, it's not sorted yet: why feminism is still needed in 2026
Together with my daughter, I cycled in De nacht is van ons (The night is ours), a protest in which more than a hundred of us women rode through the city. Along the way, men came up to us who spat at women and tried to pull them off their bikes, of all things during a protest about women being able to walk the streets safely.
If anyone ever asks me again whether feminism is really still needed, I only have to think back to that evening.
I call myself a feminist, and in 2026 that really ought to raise as few eyebrows as saying you think women should be allowed to vote. Yet a small silence still often falls at the table when I say it, and usually someone then kindly remarks that it's all been sorted out by now. It hasn't, and I can show that too.
The short answer: women in the Netherlands still earn less than men, rarely make it to the top and are often overlooked in medicine, while on average a woman is murdered every eight days. You don't have to take my word for it, because you can simply look it up.
What feminism means to me
For me, feminism is about something very simple: that women get the same rights, the same opportunities and the same respect as men.
That sounds self-evident. On that bike ride, for a few men even the idea of women going out on the streets together in the evening was too much.
Do women in the Netherlands still earn less than men?
Yes. In 2024 women in the Netherlands earned on average 10.5 per cent less per hour than men, reports Statistics Netherlands (CBS).
On an annual basis the gap is much larger: women's gross annual pay is about a third lower, partly because women work part-time far more often and take on the caring responsibilities.
In the Global Gender Gap Report 2025 the Netherlands dropped fifteen places, to 43rd. For a country that likes to call itself progressive, that's a strikingly modest ranking.
Where are the women at the top, on the pitch and in the White House?
There are still far too few of them. At the end of 2024, on average 17.3 per cent of board members at large Dutch companies were women, according to the SER. In 56 per cent of boards there isn't a single woman.
It's not down to education: in the Netherlands young women are more often highly educated than young men.
On the sports field it's no different. Women train just as hard, but get less airtime, less money and less serious attention. It wasn't until 2022 that a woman, France's Stéphanie Frappart, refereed a match at a men's World Cup for the first time. That's not ancient history, that's four years ago.
Since 1789 America has never had a female president. In 2016 Hillary Clinton won more votes than her opponent and still lost. Kamala Harris lost in 2024. The highest glass ceiling in the world is still there.
Why does medicine still assume the male body?
Because for decades medical research was mainly done on men. Researcher Aisha Gohar found that only 15 per cent of 360 major heart studies looked at differences between men and women.
You notice that in the consulting room: recent research shows that 30 per cent of heart attacks in women go unrecognised, compared with 16 per cent in men.
Women more often have different symptoms from the classic, male picture, such as extreme fatigue, shortness of breath or pain between the shoulder blades. Women aren't small men, but they're still regularly treated that way.
Who decides on abortion in America?
Mostly men. In 2022 the US Supreme Court struck down the national right to abortion. Of the five justices who voted for that, four were men.
Since then the states decide for themselves, in legislatures where about two in three lawmakers are men. The result: abortion is banned in thirteen states, in some of them without exceptions even after rape or incest.
The number of abortions in the United States remained according to the Guttmacher Institute virtually the same between 2024 and 2025. So the bans don't prevent abortions. They make them further away, more expensive and more dangerous, especially for women without the money to drive across a state line.
That's not policy, that's an obstacle course with a means test.
How common is femicide in the Netherlands?
In the Netherlands, on average a woman is murdered every eight days, every sixteen days by her partner or ex.
According to CBS the number of women killed by a (former) partner has remained virtually the same for fifteen years, while other murders are declining.
In the newspaper it's still often called a family drama, as if it were bad luck and not a recognisable pattern of control, threats and a woman who wanted to leave.
What is the Cornell 7 case and what does it say about universities?
The Cornell 7 case revolves around an alleged gang rape at Cornell University and shows how universities deal with reports of sexual violence.
In September 2026 a former student sued the university, together with seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity. She states that in October 2024 she was drugged at the fraternity house and raped by them for hours.
According to reports, it was shared in a group chat with around fifty members. Nobody called the police. At the time the prosecutor decided not to prosecute, partly because she had been drinking beforehand. Cornell handed out suspensions and two expulsions. The woman dropped out of her studies.
These are allegations and a court has to rule on them. What makes the case so painful is how recognisable the pattern is: a young woman reports the worst thing you can go through, and only two years later, after a lawsuit and a storm of publicity, does anyone really listen.
The criminal investigation has since been reopened and a special prosecutor has taken it over. The governor of New York is demanding an independent investigation into how Cornell handled the report.
Cornell turns out not to be an exception. In the university's own survey from 2025, about 35 per cent of female undergraduates reported unwanted sexual contact during their studies.
Support organisations have been saying for years that some universities care more about their image than about the safety of their female students. How Dutch law looks at this differently, you can read (in Dutch) in Ja is ja? Wat de nieuwe zedenwet in Nederland echt veranderde.
Why I'm writing this down
Lower pay, an empty seat at the top, a whistle that was only handed to a woman in 2022, medicines that haven't been tested for us, men voting on our wombs, women who are murdered or not believed.
These aren't isolated incidents. It's one story about who counts. On that bike ride my daughter rode beside me, and a few men showed that the story is still far from right.
As long as that's the case, I'll remain a feminist. I'm looking forward to the day this article is hopelessly out of date.
Frequently asked questions
Why is feminism still needed in 2026?
Because women still earn less, are under-represented at the top, are often overlooked in medicine and are more often victims of violence by a partner. In the Netherlands, on average a woman is murdered every eight days.
How big is the pay gap in the Netherlands?
In 2024 women earned on average 10.5 per cent less per hour than men, according to CBS. On an annual basis, women's gross annual pay is about a third lower, partly because of more part-time work.
How common is femicide in the Netherlands?
On average a woman is murdered every eight days, every sixteen days by her partner or ex. According to CBS, that number has remained virtually the same for fifteen years.
Sources
ANP/CBS: pay gap between men and women continues to narrow (Dutch)
Banken.nl: annual pay and Global Gender Gap Report 2025 (Dutch)
SER via Accountant.nl: share of women on the boards of large companies (Dutch)
KFF: Key Facts on Abortion in the United States
NPR: The State of Abortion Access in 2026
CBS: number of women killed by partner or ex unchanged in 15 years (Dutch)
CNN: prosecutors reopen Cornell investigation
CNN: special prosecutor takes over Cornell case
The 19th: intoxication laws and the Cornell case
The Conversation: the Cornell case and preventing sexual violence
Vice: women on their unrecognised heart attack (Aisha Gohar research)
Pointer (KRO-NCRV): why heart attacks in women are often missed (Dutch)
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