Misplaced Pages

Ien Dales
Dales in 1981
Minister of the Interior
In office 7 November 1989 – 10 January 1994
Prime Minister	Ruud Lubbers
Preceded by	Kees van Dijk
Succeeded by	Ernst Hirsch Ballin (Interim)
Mayor of Nijmegen
In office 16 May 1987 – 7 November 1989
Preceded by	Frans Hermsen [nl]
Succeeded by	Ed d'Hondt [nl]
Member of the House of Representatives
In office 16 September 1982 – 16 May 1987
Parliamentary group	Labour Party
State Secretary for Social Affairs and Employment
In office 11 September 1981 – 29 May 1982Serving with Hedy d'Ancona
Prime Minister	Dries van Agt
Preceded by	Louw de Graaf (as State Secretary for Social Affairs)
Succeeded by	Piet van Zeil
Personal details
Born	Catharina Isabella Dales (1931-10-18)18 October 1931 Arnhem, Netherlands
Died	10 January 1994(1994-01-10) (aged 62) Utrecht, Netherlands
Cause of death	Heart attack
Political party	Labour Party (from 1968)
Domestic partner	Elizabeth Schmitz (1981–1994)
Alma mater	University of Amsterdam
Occupation	Politician · Civil servant · Social worker

Catharina Isabella "Ien" Dales (18 October 1931 – 10 January 1994) was a Dutch politician and social worker. Born in Arnhem, she received a degree in education from the University of Amsterdam and worked in social services before her career in politics. She became a member of the Labour Party (PvdA) in 1968 and was appointed State Secretary for Social Affairs and Employment in the Van Agt II cabinet, a position that she held between 1981 and 1982. Dales was a member of the House of Representatives between 1981 and 1987 and mayor of Nijmegen between 1987 and 1989. She was the Minister of the Interior in the Lubbers III cabinet from 1989 and 1994.

Early life

Dales was born on 18 October 1931 in Arnhem, Netherlands. Her father was Teunis Dales, who owned a business selling construction supplies and her mother was Wilhelmina Bertha Holstigen. She was the eldest of three children, with a younger brother and sister. The family were well off and she attended a public primary school. When Dales was ten, her father died of appendicitis and her mother had to go to work.

Dales began her secondary studies at the public Hogere Burgerschool in Arnhem. She received an HBS-A diploma in 1947 and, intending to study medicine at university, an HBS-B diploma in 1950, but she was unable to afford to attend university. Having grown up in the Dutch Reformed faith, she decided to train as a youth church leader. She received a scholarship to attend the Church and World Academy in Driebergen, the largest church training programme in the country, in the 1950s. While studying, she was strongly influenced by her teacher Willem Banning, a co-founder of the Labour Party (PvdA).

She received a diploma in theology and preaching, and received a degree in education from the University of Amsterdam in 1975. Dales also worked for the Church and World Organisation between 1956 and 1974, starting as a course teacher, before becoming the deputy head and head of the education department and director of the organisation. She worked as a freelance researcher between 1 January 1975 until 1 September 1977.

Political career

Dales joined the PvdA in 1968. She was appointed as the director of social services for the municipality of Rotterdam by one of the alderman, Elizabeth Schmitz, following the discovery of widespread fraud in the department, with the challenge of re-organising the system. She held this position from 1 September 1977 and 11 September 1981.

Following the 1981 general election, she was appointed as the State Secretary for Social Affairs and Employment in the Van Agt II cabinet, taking office on 11 September 1981, with special responsibility for social security. The Van Agt II cabinet dissolved just seven months into its term on 12 May 1982 and continued to serve in a demissionary capacity until it was replaced by the caretaker Van Agt III cabinet on 29 May 1982.

Dales was elected as a member of the House of Representatives after the 1982 general election, taking office on 16 September 1982. She was the chair of the committee on petitions and the committee on the police. She held this position until 16 May 1987, the day that she took office as the mayor of Nijmegen. She was mayor until 7 November 1989.

After the 1989 general election, Dales was appointed as the Minister of the Interior in the Lubbers III cabinet, taking office on 7 November 1989. She held this position until 10 January 1994.

Death and legacy

Dales died on 10 January 1994 in Utrecht. She was the second known LGBT government minister in the Netherlands. She was in a relationship with fellow Labour Party politician Elizabeth Schmitz. For many years this fact was an open secret in Dutch politics at that time.

Decorations

Honours
Ribbon bar	Honour	Country	Date
	Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion	Netherlands	9 September 1982

References

1. ^ Dolling, Yolanda, ed. (1991). Who's who of women in world politics (1st ed.). London: Bowker-Saur. p. 58. ISBN 0-86291-627-5. OCLC 24380132.
2. ^ ricardo.brouwer@pvdagelderland.nl (2020-01-10). ""Laat mij er eens door, verdikkeme!" — een portret van Ien Dales". PvdA Gelderland (in Dutch). Retrieved 2023-06-09.
3. ^ van Kessel, Alexander (12 November 2013). "Dales, Catharina Isabella (1931-1994)". Biographical Dictionary of the Netherlands. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
4. ^ "Drs. C.I. (Ien) Dales". www.parlement.com (in Dutch). Retrieved 2023-01-27.
5. "Obituary: Ien Dales". The Independent. 1994-01-15. Retrieved 2023-06-10.

External links

• Media related to Ien Dales at Wikimedia Commons

v t e Ministers of the interior of the Netherlands
Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations
Gogel Van Stralen Mollerus Van Leyden van Westbarendrecht Twent van Raaphorst Van der Capellen Van Stralen Röell De Coninck Van Gobbelschroy De la Coste Van Doorn van Westcapelle De Kock Schimmelpenninck van der Oye Van der Heim van Duivendijke Vollenhoven Van Randwijck Van der Heim van Duivendijke Luzac De Kempenaer Thorbecke Van Reenen Simons Van Rappard Van Tets van Goudriaan Van Heemstra Thorbecke J. Geertsema J. Heemskerk Fock Thorbecke Van Bosse J. Geertsema J. Heemskerk Kappeyne van de Coppello Six Pijnacker Hordijk J. Heemskerk Mackay De Savornin Lohman Tak van Poortvliet Van Houten Goeman Borgesius Kuyper Rink T. Heemskerk Cort van der Linden De Beerenbrouck De Geer Kan De Beerenbrouck De Wilde Boeijen Burger Van Boeijen Beel Witteman Van Maarseveen Van Schaik Teulings Van Maarseveen Teulings Beel Van Oven Suurhoff Struycken Toxopeus Smallenbroek Samkalden Verdam Beernink M. Geertsema De Gaay Fortman Wiegel Van Thijn Rood Rietkerk Korthals Altes De Korte Van Dijk De Koning Van Dijk Dales Hirsch Ballin Van Thijn De Graaff-Nauta Dijkstal Peper Van Boxtel De Vries Remkes Ter Horst Hirsch Ballin Donner Spies Plasterk Blok Plasterk Ollongren Knops Ollongren Bruins Slot De Jonge Uitermark

v t e State secretaries for social affairs of the Netherlands
Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment
Van Rhijn Muntendam Roolvink De Meijer Bartels Kruisinga Rietkerk Mertens De Graaf Dales d'Ancona Van Zeil De Graaf Kappeyne van de Coppello Ter Veld Wallage Linschoten De Grave Hoogervorst Verstand Rutte Bijlhout Phoa Van Hoof Aboutaleb Klijnsma De Krom Klijnsma Van Ark Van 't Wout Wiersma Nobel

• 1931 births
• 1994 deaths
• Dutch members of the Dutch Reformed Church
• Dutch social workers
• Dutch bisexual women
• Female interior ministers
• Knights of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
• Labour Party (Netherlands) politicians
• Bisexual women politicians
• LGBTQ cabinet members of the Netherlands
• LGBTQ Calvinist and Reformed Christians
• LGBTQ mayors of places in the Netherlands
• LGBTQ members of the Parliament of the Netherlands
• Mayors of Nijmegen
• Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands)
• Ministers of the interior of the Netherlands
• People from Arnhem
• Politicians from Rotterdam
• Politicians from Utrecht (city)
• State Secretaries for Social Affairs of the Netherlands
• University of Amsterdam alumni
• Women government ministers of the Netherlands
• Women mayors of places in the Netherlands
• 20th-century Dutch civil servants
• 20th-century Dutch women politicians
• 20th-century Dutch politicians
• 20th-century Dutch LGBTQ people