Nancy Sophie Cornélie "Corry" Tendeloo (3 September 1897 – 18 October 1956) was a Dutch lawyer, feminist, and politician who served in the House of Representatives for the Free-thinking Democratic League (VDB) from 1945 until 1946 and then for the newly-formed Labour Party (PvdA) until her death in 1956.

Born in the Dutch East Indies, Tendeloo studied law at Utrecht University, during which time she made contact with people within the women's rights movement.

After World War II, Tendeloo was appointed a member of the House of Representatives for the VDB in the national emergency parliament, formed to rebuild the country and organise elections.

In early 1955, she successfully made the case for equal pay and later that year put forward a motion to abolish the ban on state employment for married women.

[7] In 1924, Tendeloo joined the law firm Pieren & Folkers and in 1927, she began to practise as an independent lawyer in Amsterdam, specialising in women's issues, including divorce.

[2][5][6][8] She also encountered cases involving women's inequalities while working pro bono (without pay) for Vereniging Ons Huis [nl], an association to promote social housing.

[13] As president of the VVGS youth committee Tendeloo and other feminists such as Willemijn Posthumus-van der Goot organised protests across the country in 1937, when parliament discussed Minister Carl Romme's draft law to ban married women from paid employment.

[2] Tendeloo was elected to the Amsterdam City Council in 1938 and remained active in the VVGS, campaigning for men to see women as equals in the workforce who could contribute to the progress of society, not just family life.

[6] After the war, Tendeloo returned to the Amsterdam City Council and in November 1945 was appointed to the House of Representatives for the VDB in the national emergency parliament, formed to rebuild the country and organise elections.

[21] Tendeloo started a regular column called "Parlementaria" in the monthly magazine of the VVGS, writing about political news events; she continued to do so until April 1956.

[22] In 1947, Tendeloo unsuccessfully tried to stop a ministerial ruling put forward by Minister of Internal Affairs Louis Beel, asking ministries to restrict the hiring of married women.

[23] In 1948, she was successful, together with Wim de Kort [nl], in securing universal suffrage for Suriname and Curaçao by having the word "male" struck from the bill for the new charter for the Dutch colonies.

[29][30] The government also claimed it was up to the private sector to prioritise equal pay; Tendeloo argued that anything involving women's rights would end up at the bottom of the priority list.

[35] During and after World War II, with great labour shortages, the law was circumvented by offering dismissed married women a temporary contract.

[32] Tendeloo raised the issue of inequality in the workplace throughout her tenure in parliament;[6] in September 1955 she forced an interpellation during a discussion about a proposed law for teachers.

Tendeloo argued that the government's position on maintaining mandatory dismissal of married teachers, albeit with more exemptions than before, was out of touch with society.

[39][40] Following days of debate, during which members of faith-based parties argued that removing the ban would jeopardise the well-being of families, the Motion Tendeloo was put up for a vote on 22 September 1955.

As described in the 1838 civil code, under marital power, married women were legally "incompetent to act" (handelingsonbekwaam), similar to the status of minors and people with severe mental health problems.

[46][A] This meant that in principle married women could not open a bank account, apply for a mortgage or insurance, or sign a labour agreement without the permission of their husband.

In practice a "silent assent" (stilzwijgende toestemming) was assumed for most contracts, but many educated women found their inferior legal position demeaning.

[55] The Justice Select Committee amended the draft legislation by adding a sentence saying "the man is the head of the marriage" to placate Christian parties while having no legal effect.

[54] According to Posthumus-van der Goot, Tendeloo deployed the techniques the male members of the House used: they commonly first stated they had listened with great interest to the speaker and agreed with what was said, with just one addition, and then followed it with a sharp critique.

Liesbeth Ribbius Peletier, former chair of the VVGS and fellow PvdA member, praised Tendeloo's efforts and called her an "energetic and relentless women's rights fighter".

[61] Afterwards, Speaker of the House of Representatives Rad Kortenhorst said in parliament that she had been "an apostle" with "sharp, legal insights"; Prime Minister Drees praised her great dedication to women's rights issues.

[40] Het Parool commented that it must have given her great satisfaction just before she died to see the appointment of Marga Klompé as the first female minister of the Netherlands, something she had urged Drees to do already in 1952.

[68] In the same year, in a retrospective of women's rights movements, the Dutch government called her a "fierce protestor" against the gender inequalities in the civil code.