Nominees for the Joke Smit Prize 2025 Announced

The Joke Smit Prize is a biennial state award given to a person or organization committed to gender equality. The winner of the lifetime achievement prize receives an art object and an amount of €10,000. The encouragement prize is awarded to individuals or initiatives that have made a successful contribution to improving the position of women in the Netherlands. The winner of the encouragement prize receives €1,000. The nominees are selected by the jury of the Joke Smit Prize. The prize is named after feminist Joke Smit (1933–1981), who played a leading role in the womens emancipation movement in the Netherlands.

Liza Mügge is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. She has been committed to advancing the position of women for more than 25 years. She is a connector and bridge-builder who links science and society.

The feminist movement Dolle Mina was founded in 1969 out of dissatisfaction with the position of women in society. They drew attention to womens rights with playful actions. In 2025, Dolle Mina continues to advocate for the improvement of womens rights, such as during actions where women cycled in 15 cities to raise awareness about womens safety.

Vrouwen van Nu is a womens organization with thousands of members throughout the Netherlands that works towards a society in which women and men participate equally and fully. With specific projects for women in areas such as the energy transition and women in politics.

Sara Alaoui is the founder of The Safe Space Club, a physical meeting place where women from various backgrounds come together for workshops and discussions on topics such as boundaries, sexual violence, recovery, and self-determination.

Nienke ’s Gravemade is an actress, writer, and last but not least an online feminist activist. With humorous videos on Instagram, she highlights toxic masculinity. Nienke ’s Gravemade wrote the poignant poem #rechtopdenacht after the murder of Lisa.

Zoë Papaikonomou is a journalist, teacher, writer, and podcast maker. By flipping texts, she “improves” suggestive and misleading newspaper headlines. She shows how texts can wrongly influence the readers perception, often to the detriment of women.

The jury for the Joke Smit Prize consists of jury chair Janneke Wittekoek (cardiologist for womens hearts), Belle Barbé (founder of The Sexuality School and known from the TV program De Slimste Mens), and Iven Cudogham (author of Anansi the Spider books and animated series, and known from the TV program Een Huis Vol).