Jasmijn Groot
“The field of women’s history has achieved so much since the 1960s and 1970s. It has given us so many more insights into our past and so much more understanding of our world, which would not have been possible if we had kept on focusing on the men.”
Jasmijn is a gender historian, writer, and researcher who is devoted to celebrating women's stories and lived experiences. As the founder of the Historical Women Project, she aims to provide visibility to the cultural and societal contributions that women have made throughout time — contributions which have often been overlooked or underreported in media and textbooks. In merging her academic background with activism, she has built a platform that serves to educate, acknowledge, and honor the historical influences of women. Her work continues to make valuable strides in the pursuit of gender equality. This is her story.
K: Please introduce yourself!
J: My name is Jasmijn Groot, I am from the Netherlands, and I work as a freelance gender historian. I write for several magazines about women's history and feminism, and I work as a researcher for an upcoming Dutch/Flemish documentary series Gay & Grey by director Julia M. Free, about the lives of lesbian couples who are in the autumn of their lives and who have been together for decades.
I am also the founder of the Historical Women Project, a digital platform that centralises women's history. Together with my editors and guest writers, we publish biographies about historical women, reviews on the latest releases, and articles about current affairs from new and interesting historical angles.
K: What inspired you to start the Historical Women Project?
J: It was mainly my passion for women's history. After graduating from university, I found it difficult to find work in my field. While I worked 9 to 5 jobs, I started an Instagram account, on which I would post a biography on a historical woman or a review on a release about women's history every week. It was an outlet for my love for women's history, but also a sort of resume to show off: "look, I am still doing what I have been trained to do."
The account was under my own name from October 2020 until the summer of 2023. Then I decided to call it the Historical Women Project, as it better covered the essence of what I was doing with the platform. Around that time, I also came to the conclusion that I wanted to do more with it - write more biographies, more reviews, maybe interviews - but that I could not do that on my own. In January 2024, I have gotten help from four volunteers and fellow women's history lovers: Rosa den Oudsten, Maartje Kramer, Sebastiaan Coops and Juliëtte Ronteltap. We also regularly publish articles by fantastic guest writers. And in September of this year, I would like to expand my team even further.
K: What core mission drives the work behind HWP?
J: Naturally, a big part of the mission is to acquaint people with as many wonderful historical women as we possibly can. But mostly, we want to get women's history on equal footing with general history - which is, unfortunately, still dominated by men.
K: Why is it so important to create spaces that amplify and honour women’s stories—especially those left out of the mainstream?
J: Because there still are not that many. And the women's stories are definitely not always represented in the spaces that should be respresenting both men and women equally. Find the history section in your local bookstore: how many books can you see that are about women? Go to the magazine stand: how many covers of history magazines feature pictures or illustrations of women? Go through the historical documentaries on Netflix: how many of them are about women? Or ask your children: do they need to know any female historical figures for their upcoming test?
This is no coincidence. Thanks to the Historical Women Project, I am able to do freelance writing. And as such, I have learned that most history magazines in the Netherlands cater to the same target audience: well educated, straight, white, Christian men over the age of fifty. This is a generation that has a very straightworward idea of what history looks like. And it often does not include women - or queer people or BIPOC people, for that matter.
In a sense, the demands of the target audience and the editors catering to them, maintain history magazines as spaces that amplify and honour men's stories, men's history, and men in general. They continue to generate the idea of history as the realm of men. Sure, they publish articles about women's history. But it often seems like it is just done to tick off a box or to avoid claims about sexism. The field of women's history has achieved so much since the 1960s and 1970s. It has given us so many more insights into our past and so much more understanding of our world, which would not have been possible if we had kept on focusing on the men.
On the other hand, it's a good thing to sometimes question if I am going about it the right way. Is it a good thing that I created this separate space for women's history? Or am I marginalising the field? Should I instead focus more on integrating women's history into general history? But then somebody like Trump becomes president again and restricts financial grants for researches that include the words 'gender' and 'women'. I wrote my thesis when the man was fulfilling his first term, and in my introduction I said: "with a man like Trump in power, the time to study women is now!' My supervisor appreciated the activist tone. And I have come to the conclusion since then that my work will most likely always need a bit of activism. So, a separate space for women's history it is!
K: Is there one woman—past or present—who inspires you? What would you say to her if you had the chance?
J: They all do collectively, in a way. They inspire me to tell their stories, they inspire me to educate people on how incredible, interesting and complex women are, and they inspire me to convince women of their place in the past and that they should claim it in the present and the future.
One historical woman who has inspired me most recently, would be Audre Lorde. Her collection of essays, Sister Outsider, has taught me so much about intersectionality and diversity: the simple fact that a human's lived experience is incredibly dependent on their identities, such as sex, gender, race, religion and social class. It's something that I am much more aware of in my research and my day to day life.
Or shall I go for Sister Rosetta Tharpe? You see, I find it very difficult to choose! Sister Rosetta Tharpe is becoming more and more recognised as the godmother of rock 'n roll. I love rock 'n roll music, and I am a fan of many rock 'n roll artists. How awesome is it, that it was a black queer woman who inspired them? Plus, Rosetta just puts a smile on my face every time I put on her music.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe by James J. Kriegsmann (Left) and Audre Lorde by Jack Mitchell (Right)
A modern day woman who has really inspired me is art historian Katy Hessel. Her book The Story of Art Without Men is eye opening about the ways in which art history has ousted female artists for so long. I have had the pleasure of meeting her earlier this year and she is as enthusiastic about women in art history in real life as she is in her book.
K: What has building HWP taught you—about history, about women, or about yourself?
J: That it is so much fun to reach out to other women's history enthusiasts. Building the Historical Women Project has brought me into contact with all kinds of people from all over the world who I would never have gotten in touch with if I had further pursued an academic career: writers, researchers, directors, graphic artists, activists, photographers. Not only have those contacts inspired me and made me able to actually work as a gender historian, they have also made me able to use more of my creativity in my work.
K: What does being a woman mean to you?
J: I just find us women so incredibly cool and our stories so beautiful. So that is what it means to be a woman for me: to be part of the coolest part of humankind.
