Ina Brouwer

Ina Brouwer (born 11 April 1950) is a Dutch politician of the Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN) and later co-founder of the GroenLinks (GL) party and lawyer.

Education and early career
Brouwer studied Law at Groningen University. There, Brouwer came in touch with social security law and socially engaged lawyers. Inspired by this side of the legal profession, Brouwer became a member of the Communist Party of the Netherlands. In 1981, she became a member of the House of Representatives for the CPN. In 1981, she succeeded Marcus Bakker as chairperson of the CPN parliamentary party. She remained in the House of Representatives until 1986, when the CPN lost its three seats in the election and disappeared from the House.

Brouwer was a longtime advocate of a merger of the CPN, the Christian left Political Party of Radicals and Evangelical People's Party and the leftwing socialist Pacifist Socialist Party to form a new left-wing formation. In 1989 this was realized, and the new party was called GroenLinks. After the 1989 elections Brouwer returned to the House of Representatives, as a member of parliament for GroenLinks. Between 1990 and 1991, Brouwer was one of the first members of parliament to leave the House of Representatives for a short period to give birth. The duo Ina Brouwer/Mohammed Rabbae were the top candidate for the 1994 elections after winning a preliminary from Paul Rosenmöller/Leonie Sipkes. Brouwer and Rabbae were not very successful in the general elections and the party lost one of its six seats. Brouwer announced that she would step down and not take her seat in parliament.

Between 1995 and 2003, Brouwer worked at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment as director for emancipation and a quartermaster for the Academy of the ministry. In 2003, she published a book, ''Het glazen plafond. Vrouwen aan de top, verlangens & obstakels'' ("The Glass ceiling. Women at the top, desires, and obstacles") on the position of women on the labour market. In 2005 Brouwer became a senior advisor at Twynstra Gudde, where she advises public institutions on diversity, social affairs and government reform.

In January 2007, Ina Brouwer announced that she became a member of the Dutch Labour Party in addition to her membership of GroenLinks. She did this in protest against GroenLinks' decision to abandon negotiations with the Labour Party, the Christian Democratic Appeal, and the Christian Union during the cabinet formation. Brouwer thought that this was a missed opportunity.

During the 2014 Dutch municipal elections, Brouwer participated as the leader of the local Amsterdam party Visie op Amsterdam. A seat was not won: the party received only 0.19 percent of the vote. Since May 2015, Brouwer has mainly continued her career as a lawyer.

In 2023, after the fall of the fourth Rutte cabinet, she presented herself as a candidate for the House of Representatives with the combined GroenLinks–Labour Party alliance.