Living closely together

As from 2019 it is becoming even more evident in the Outdoor Museum that a century ago life around the Zuiderzee was anything but easy. And least of all for women. True, in 1919 women were given the right to vote, but this did not automatically mean an overnight change to the wife of a fisherman. While her husband was out at sea, she was responsible for keeping her household going – in all weathers. And as no one can live on air, she and her children had to create additional  sources of income. 

Explore the Outdoor Museum and meet Grietje, a fisherman's wife, living cheek by jowl with her mother and four children in the village of Zoutkamp. It was a tough life: big families used to live in tiny cottages, and most of the time everyday amenities and services, which we have come to find perfectly normal, simply did not exist. Do you think you could live in such a world?