This book presents the results of a research about the Islamic courts of Cianjur in West Java, and Bulukumba in South Sulawesi and the role they play in local divorce practices.

This special issue focuses on emerging trends in the implementation of the WPS agenda. In reviewing the resolution 20 years since the passing of Resolution 1325, Newby and O'Malley have highlighted the gaps in implementation.

2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the first United Nations World Conference on Women (Mexico City, 1975), a process that led to the creation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995). The Global Transformations and Governance Challenges Programme organised a roundtable to reflect on…

Christa Tobler writes an extensive article on voting rights for different groups for the annual congress of the

UNESCO has recognized a large collection of handwritten letters and the archive of Raden Ajeng Kartini (1879-1904) as documentary world heritage. Kartini opposed gender inequality in feudal Javanese society, including forced marriages, polygamy and lack of education for women.

What role do the Islamic courts play in protecting women’s divorce rights? How do they perform with regard to spousal support, child support and marital property? Stijn van Huis defends his PhD thesis on September 8, 2015

The place of women in Leiden University was not steadily established for a very long time. Their roles spanned beyond the realms of academics and students. Seeking equality with men, they fought to obtain the right to work, to study and teach at university, to attain high-level jobs and to vote.

The Women’s March was held on 9 March 2019 in Amsterdam and many students and members of staff from Leiden University took part in speaking out against oppression and making societal change.

In Women and Property Rights in Indonesian Islamic Contexts, eight scholars of Indonesian Islam examine women’s access to property in law courts and in village settings.

Sophia aims to create equal opportunities and promote a better working climate for female academic staff at Leiden University.

In this article, Maria-Elena Kisyova, Yannick Veilleux-Lepage and Vanessa Newby shed some light on how a small but highly visible group of influencers are actively working to promote a dangerous far-right ideology.

Rietje Knaap’s (83) PhD was a real feat of endurance, but she persisted. ‘You’re married so you don’t need a pension, do you?’ What are the experiences of Knaap and women who followed in her footsteps? In the run-up to International Women’s Day on 8 March, three generations of female doctors look back…

The Dutch women’s movement began around 1967 with the discussion of the disadvantages that women faced in daily life. In 1968 the MVM (Man-Vrouw-Maatschappij) was born and played an important role as a public voice demanding female education programs and inclusion in the workforce.

Considering the fact that for a long time women were not allowed to participate either in university life nor in academia, women found different ways they could be included.

What better way to represent women in the present than to ask them? The Museums Matters Class decided to ask Leiden’s Leading Ladies to loan an object which they felt encompassed their time here, from those in their undergraduate to one of the 23 female professors, with many positions in between.

Bringing together the most current research on the relationship between crime and gender in the West between 1600 and 1914, this authoritative volume places female criminality within its everyday context.

Democracy in Action is a Horizon Europe-funded initiative exploring how grassroots movements, cultural spaces, and digital innovations can strengthen democratic participation. With a special focus on youth, women, ethnic minorities and night culture, we bring together researchers, grassroots movements,…

In the present-day United States, to what degree(s) are far-right men and women similar and/or dissimilar in their motivating factors for engaging in far-right social movement activism?

Women in International Security -Netherlands (WIIS-NL) is an affiliate of WIIS Global. WIIS-NL Members include: professionals, civil servants, academics, NGOs, employees of international bodies and organizations, embassy staff, politicians, students, and interested members of the general public. The…

On 18 May 2022, Annelien Bouland defended her thesis 'Please give me my divorce: an ethnography of Muslim women and the law in Senegal'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof.dr. J.M. Otto, Prof.dr. M.M.A. Kaag and Dr.ir. C.I.M. Jacobs.

This article examines the effects of introducing proportional representation (PR) in Polish local elections on women’s political representation.

Where are the Women in Global Governance and in peace processes?

How many stars are there in the Universe? And how can astronauts float in space? These and many other questions about astronomy will be answered at Leiden University on Saturday 9 February.

Crime is men’s business, isn’t it? Women are responsible for 10 percent of crime in Europe. Yet, if we look at the Dutch Republic in the early modern period, we find that in the towns of Holland women played a much larger role in crime.

How are the narrative concerns of Nigerian female writers constructed in relation to the structure to their society?

The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda arising from United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 has reached a critical juncture in its short 20-year history. Despite comprising ten resolutions designed to bolster the agenda and expand its scope and normative power, serious challenges to the…

A growing amount of literature is being devoted to interrogating gendered dynamics in both violent extremism and terrorism, contributing to the integration of international and feminist security. This includes how such dynamics can shape differences in the motivations and participation of women and…

This book provides an exploration into the historical transformations of women's interactions with state police in the Western world from 1800 to 1950.

From Soledad Acosta de Samper and Albalucía Angel to Hazel Robinson Abrahams and Amalialú Posso Figueroa. During the Symposium & Workshop Experience and Voice: Library of Colombian Women Writers, Carolina Olarte-Bácares, Ambassador of Colombia, donates the Biblioteca de Escritoras Colombianas to the…

Sasse, van Breen, Spears & Gordijn demonstrated an anger gap in response to sexism which was larger for women than for men and found evidence that expressed anger was associated with instrumental concerns.

Nadine Akkerman's book Invisible Agents is the very first study to analyse the role of early modern women spies. The book foregrounds the agency of early-modern women, offering a corrective to the gender bias implicit in modern historiography.

Kohei Suzuki, assistant professor at Leiden University, together with Victor Lapuente, examined how male and female public managers show attitudinal differences toward innovation in the public sector.

Promotor: Prof.dr. E.F. Smets, Co-promotor: T.R. van Andel

Rebecca Tompkins defended her thesis on 21 March 2019

Punching Back is a detailed ethnographic study that demonstrates that young Muslim women who kickbox develop agentive selves by challenging gender norms, challenging expectations, and living out their religious subjectivities.

This article investigates the efforts of influential Turkish Muslim civil society actors to amplify the voices of Muslim women in the Netherlands.

Promotor: J. Kuiper

Recently, Ingrid Leijten’s book Core Socio-Economic Rights and the European Court of Human Rights was published with Cambridge University Press. The monograph was published in the series Cambridge Studies in European Law and Policy (edited by Laurence Gormley and Jo Shaw) and deals with the protection…

What was the relationship between women and modern media in different parts of Asia in the 20th century? Under what historical and social conditions did women achieve prominence in popular music in Asia?

The Leiden Children's Rights Observatory is an open access online database of case commentaries, written by international experts on children’s rights, referring to the decisions of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on…

The Leiden Children’s Rights Clinic is a pilot initiative that advances the implementation of children's rights and offers research-based, legal and practical solutions to address the gap in knowledge and shortage of resources in the field of children’s rights.

The Children’s Rights Monitor provides a thematic overview of the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in the Netherlands.

Frontiers of Children's Rights Summer School

Melanie Fink, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Europa Institute of Leiden University, has published her book Frontex and Human Rights, Responsibility in 'Multi-Actor Situations' under the ECHR and EU Public Liability Law. This work is based on her doctoral dissertation, which she defended in December…