I.E. Prins-Willekes Macdonald (1886–1979)

Ina Prins-Willekes MacDonald was born in Haarlem, The Netherlands to a progressive, liberal-minded family. Her parents were François Willekes MacDonald, a lawyer, and his wife Pauline Johanna Reijnvaan, president of the local women's suffrage organization. She attended gymnasium and studied law with the intention of one day taking over her father's practice. After completing her studies in 1909, she worked for several years as a lawyer. In 1911, she married Adriaan Pieter "Apie" Prins, a journalist, with whom she had two children.
The family spent years in California, Canada, England and Switzerland for her husband's jobs before returning to Holland in 1925. The couple divorced two years later, and Ina supported herself by teaching and translating, eventually translating more than 100 books. She introduced Maria Montessori's educational methods into the public schools, and founded the first Montessori school in The Netherlands. She contributed articles about women's rights and educational innovation to various publications. In 1935, she became the editor of Vrouwen (Women), the magazine of the Communist-inspired World Women's Committee against War and Fascism, and taught unemployed workers at the Marxist Workers' School in Rotterdam. She published her book De vrouw en de maatschappij (The Woman and Society) in 1939. In 1941, during the Nazi Occupation of Holland in World War II, Ina and her daughter Sonja were arrested. Ina was released after six weeks, but Sonja was deported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Ina cared for her three young grandchildren until her return after the war. Ina remained active in the Dutch Women's Movement and the Dutch Peace Council, but left the Communist Party near the end of her life. Her other books included Tactiek in de opvoeding (Tactics in Education, 1946); biographies of -- among others -- the feminists Aletta Jacobs, Mina Kruseman and Christina Elisabeth "Betsy" Perk in Baanbreeksters (Gangsters, 1960); and Bevrijdende opvoeding (Liberating Education,1979).