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Gender equality
Harassment, threats, insults or violence because of someone’s biological sex, sexual orientation or gender are forbidden by law.
Gender refers to both someone’s gender identity and to their gender roles.
- Gender identity means whether a person feels like a woman or a man. It is possible for a person to be born a girl but feel like a boy. A person can also feel that they are neither a woman nor a man, or can feel like both.
- Gender roles are society’s expectations about the way a man or a woman should behave.
A man and a woman talking as equals
When a person’s gender or sex becomes a motive for violence by others, it can be recognised as an aggravating circumstance and result in a more serious punishment.
Discrimination
Dutch law forbids any discrimination based on sex or gender. For example:
- discrimination because you are a woman or a man (biological sex). Men and women have equal rights according to the law;
- discrimination based on sexual orientation;
- discrimination based on gender identity and expression.
For example: it is also forbidden to discriminate against a man because he dresses as a woman or to discriminate against a woman because she wants to do a typical man’s job.