Wim Hora Adema

Wim Hora Adema (14 July 1914 – 10 December 1998

Biography Adema began her career as an unpaid worker for the Algemeen Handelsblad, a liberal Amsterdam newspaper; in 1939, she was appointed editor for the national section. She worked there until 1941, when she resigned as a protest against the anti-Jewish measures taken at the paper. In that period she shared desks with authors such as Gerard Reve, Henri Knap, and Simon Carmiggelt, and was one of the people in Amsterdam around whom literary life was centered. Adema worked for Het Parool for twenty-two years, during which time she helped nurture women authors and illustrators including Schmidt, Westendorp, Freezer, Hella Haasse, and Mies Bouhuys. In 1968 she was fired by editor-in-chief Herman Sandberg, which caused some uproar and even led to the firing of an editor at Vrij Nederland.

Feminist activism and Opzij, 1960s and after In the 1960s, Hora Adama gained attention writing feminist newspaper columns. With Hedy d'Ancona, Joke Smit, Hora Adema started Man Vrouw Maatschappij (often abbreviated as MVM, and translated as "Man Woman Society"), a radical feminist action group considered the first Dutch Second-wave feminism organization and active until it was dissolved in 1988.

With d'Ancona, Hora Adema founded the radical feminist monthly magazine Opzij (the title translates as "move over") in 1972, together with politician and sociologist Hedy d'Ancona. In 1992, d'Ancona and Adema were awarded the Harriët Freezer ring, an award given to contributors to women's emancipation, honoring them for Opzij and other contributions. In 2007, printed over 94,000 copies per month, though today it is considered a more mainstream magazine, focusing more on general opinion than on activism.