Member of Parliament Corry Tendeloo put her heart and soul into advocating for the equal treatment of men and women. She managed to get the legal incapacity of women ended on 14 June 1956. Before then, a woman could not dispose of her own property without the consent of her father, husband or brother – unless she was a widow. After 1956, a woman could, for example, take out a mortgage or insurance, but she still did not have her own tax-free allowance on her income. Under the Income Tax Act 1964, the system that a wife’s income was added to her husband’s continued to apply. Even though working live-in children enjoyed an independent tax-free allowance, the same did not apply to women.
Corry Tendeloo found it strange that she was allowed to debate and vote on tax laws in the House of Representatives but was not allowed to attend lectures on them. She enrolled in the Tax Academy under a pseudonym to break into this exclusively male sphere. She was rejected but gained a lot of publicity for her stunt.
In 1954, the Academy was officially opened to women, but in practice women were still held back. Director J. van der Poel was very much against women inspectors and only after his retirement would a woman finally be admitted (in 1963). She graduated in Leiden, as the Academy had been closed in 1966.
Thanks partly to Corry Tendeloo’s efforts, the compulsory retirement law for married female civil servants was abolished in 1955. She barely lived to see this success as she died a year later.
