Martina Gezina Kramers

Overview

Martina Gezina Kramers born Veur, Holland June 24, 1863 (d. 1935). Dutch internationalist, feminist, social democrat; spoke 12 languages; founded International Correspondence which got attention to women's issues in League of Nations and ILO.

Quotations

"Due to sustained pressure by feminist lobbyists at the end of the war, the political leaders who negotiated the Treaty of Versailles did include a provision on behalf of equal pay for equal work, and the treaty made specific provision for the inclusion of women in the work of the International Labour Organization and the League of Nations. But it was one thing to put the words into a treaty and another thing to make them a reality—as we know all too well today. Equal pay for equal work is no April Fool’s joke but an essential requirement en route to gender equity." (early 1918, in Karen Offen, International Museum of Women, April 2010; photo iisg.nl)