Ode to Amsterdam's female korfball players | This sport has contributed to the emancipation of women worldwide

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Ode to Amsterdam women korfball players
 

Amsterdam korfball women were forerunners of women's emancipation. Even before women were allowed to vote actively in our country (in 1919), they did so on the line-up of their twelve-team team, in which six women and six men played. For as early as 1903, the first korfball matches were played in Amsterdam. By 1912, there is also already a female referee. The number of clubs grows rapidly. From then on, korfball was unique in the world, a mixed team sport, where men women had equal rights and duties.
 

Both ladies and men did not wear the most comfortable clothes in the first years. The ladies long skirts and the men long trousers with braces. But here, too, the Amsterdam ladies were ahead of the curve if you compare this to other sports. For they went with the fashion, wore caps in the 1930s (see photo) and were the first with short skirts, sporty yet elegant.
 

Mixed sports also created friendships, which in turn could lead to marriages. Therefore, it was also said that if you played korfball, you entered the marriage market. Again, it was often the women who took the initiative. Only you usually started young and only thought about that fun sport.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Amsterdam had the hegemony of korfball in our country. As proof the inter-country match between Belgium and the Netherlands in the hall (since 1966 with two instead of three sections): more than half of the team came from Amsterdam, including three of the four korfball players.

The korfball players did have to fight to not just be supportive in the game. They were still sometimes called 'pole lady' because they had to catch the men's shots. They were certainly willed from the start of korfball, where married women had to wait until 1956 when the law on legal incapacity was abolished. Until then, women were not allowed to work, open a bank account, without their husband's consent. Playing korfball, however, was fortunately not a problem all these years.

Korfball is now played in 69 countries worldwide. That this sport has contributed to women's emancipation worldwide is partly thanks to Amsterdam's korfball players.