A commissioned article for RAN on theatre directors' Marjorie Boston’s vision on female leadership.
Let’s begin by contextualizing female leadership. Before 1960, the number of women in leadership roles was shockingly low. Globally, women held less than 1% of executive positions in politics, business, and culture. In the Netherlands, married women weren’t even allowed to take a paid job without their husband’s permission until 1956. The idea of a woman leading a company, political party, or country was considered unthinkable. Women were expected to stay home, care for the family, and focus on “feminine” duties. Leadership was exclusively associated with men and seen as requiring qualities like assertiveness, authority, and hierarchical control—attributes attributed mainly to men at the time.
Since the latter half of the 20th century, there has been a significant global increase in female leadership. In 1970, women held just 2% of top positions in politics and business, a number that has now grown to around 27% across sectors. The growth in the Netherlands is particularly remarkable. In 1980, only 6% of Dutch Parliament members were women; today, that number is about 40%. A similar trend can be observed in business: while female CEOs were a rarity in the 1980s, women now lead around 15% of major Dutch companies.
Marjorie Boston has played an important role in this development, particularly in the cultural sector. As an actress, she was a role model; as an artistic leader, a trailblazer. She has served on various boards and committees, programmed theaters and festivals, taught, produced countless works, and facilitated valuable collaborations. Moreover, she has spearheaded initiatives in the Netherlands that have advanced the recognition and visibility of Black cultural expressions.
However, Marjorie prefers to start with a different “context” when asked about the factors influencing her leadership. For her, it’s clear: her leadership is deeply rooted in the place and culture where her family has lived for centuries. “In Suriname, women have always played a central role,” she explains. “The matrifocal tradition means that mothers and daughters often lead families, while men tend to take a more background role.” This dynamic traces back to slavery and the colonial period. “Back then, families were frequently torn apart, and women had to take on the responsibility of caring for the family and community. It was a harsh reality,” she continues. “Women had no choice but to be strong.”
Even after slavery, when many men migrated for work, women remained the backbone of their communities. “Men often left to earn money, but it was the women who kept everything running. They weren’t just caregivers but leaders. Their true power came from their connection to their surroundings and their people.” According to Marjorie, this was also evident in the ‘mati culture’, a dynamic in which women made their own choices in both friendship and love. “There was a freedom in how women connected with each other,” she says. “That freedom allowed them to create their own spheres of influence, away from the male gaze.” Additionally, women held a critical role in the religious spheres of Afro-Surinamese communities. “In Winti, the predominant traditional religion, women are at least as important as men, if not more so,” Marjorie says with pride. “This spiritual influence gave women a unique power, something entirely different from the usual male power structures.”
Marjorie’s own family history reflects this strong female lineage. "My grandmother, whom I always call an 'old-fashioned Indian and village healer,' had eleven children with four different fathers," she says with a smile. "She ran the family entirely on her own. She was the cornerstone of the family." Her mother continued that tradition of strength and independence. "At the age of twenty-three, she emigrated alone to Osdorp, Amsterdam, in search of a better life. She later brought over her three daughters and managed a household in a culture she knew nothing about. I learned entrepreneurship and self-reliance from her."
It was almost inevitable that Marjorie would take on a leadership role, but her experience in the Netherlands was initially different from what she expected. “The Netherlands was incredibly racist at the time,” she recalls. “I really had to search for my place and find out which sphere of influence worked for me.” She observed how the men around her dominated leadership roles and often considered leadership as a male domain. “I saw the difference so clearly. Dutch women mostly followed the prevailing norms, and that bothered me. In my family, it was normal for women to take charge. Here, it seemed to revolve mainly around men, performance, and results.”
In her teenage years, she tried to adapt to this male-dominated world. “I was a real tomboy,” she says with a laugh. “I did a lot of boyish things and wanted to be seen as tough, as if that was the only way to be taken seriously, to make it in a man’s world.” A pattern many women adopt in their first steps toward leadership, Marjorie and I conclude: adopting male traits or appearances to fit into a leadership role. But is that truly leadership, or rather a form of conforming to a system that doesn’t recognize them for who they are?
Thanks to her mother, Marjorie soon learned that exercising influence could be done differently, namely by creating things. “Being creative gives you a unique form of power,” she says. “It’s not about controlling people but about the ability to tell stories and offer new perspectives.” Her mother recognized this talent in her and enrolled her in a talent development program for a musical production led by theater-makers Rufus Collins and Henk Tjon. This was the beginning of Marjorie’s career in the cultural sector. After graduating from the Academy of Theater and Dance, Marjorie quickly made a name for herself. “I was the only Black student,” she recalls. “But that didn’t stop me from participating in major productions like Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden and with theater companies like Theatergroep De Appel and Theater van het Oosten.”
It was a unique experience, but the real turning point came when she, along with her partner Maarten and her best friend Lucien, founded their own group, Made in da Shade, the first hip-hop production house in the Netherlands. “We wanted to do something different, something that suited who we were. It was about connecting with club and hip-hop culture, exploring social themes, and creating something new. It was important to attract new creative talents and give them a platform.” As Marjorie created her own spheres of influence, she was also influenced by others. In addition to the strong women in her family, she looks up to figures like Josephine Baker, who symbolizes resilience and breaking racial barriers for her. “Her courage to be vulnerable and her dedication to community, like with her ‘rainbow tribe,’ inspire me immensely.”
Marjorie also shares how her vision of leadership shifted from the creative to the business domain and how she learned to exert influence in other ways. Initially, she still performed on stage herself. “I loved it,” she says. “But there came a time when I realized that my leadership wasn’t fully acknowledged as long as I continued acting,” she explains.
Creative leadership didn’t feel sufficient for what the times called for. “I wanted to steer the ship, to govern—not just artistically, but also on a business level.” That’s why Marjorie decided to focus on the business side of the theater world. Her goal soon became clear: to reform the theater sector in terms of ethnicity and gender. “I saw that ‘white’ companies often retained their subsidies and held a fixed position in the theater world,” she explains. “But companies of color were often seen as beginners, as some kind of experiment. When cuts were made, we were the first to lose our funding.”
This activism brought a new depth to her leadership but also made her increasingly aware of her role as a woman. With MC, the theater and production house she came to lead, Marjorie began developing her own narrative about female leadership—at a time when Black female leaders on stage were still exceedingly rare. As the first woman in a leadership role at a cultural organization with staff ranging from 30 to 200 people, Marjorie saw opportunities to express new forms of leadership.
What truly sets female leadership apart? For Marjorie, the difference lies in the way women wield power, something deeply rooted in both Surinamese and global history. “No matter how ‘high’ women climb in their leadership positions, they always stay connected to their environment,” Marjorie believes. “They see more of what is happening and often think in terms of ‘we’ instead of ‘I.’ Men are more inclined to project, whereas women naturally tune in to their surroundings.”
This approach forms the core of her leadership style. “To lead people, you have to stand behind them,” she explains. “I make sure my team feels genuinely connected to a larger theme, a shared mission. It’s about ensuring that they’re not just working for me or the organization, but for something bigger, something that can change the zeitgeist.” What Marjorie describes is part of a broader shift in how we view leadership. The rise of female leaders in recent decades has transformed the way power is perceived. Where leadership was once primarily about hierarchy and authority, it now increasingly emphasizes collaboration, empathy, and inclusion—qualities often central to female leadership. This trend demonstrates that the path to equality in leadership is widening, with its impact becoming increasingly evident worldwide.
Still, I am curious—where are the men in this story? Marjorie acknowledges without hesitation the important role that men have played in her career and emphasizes that they also hold a valuable place in the development of female leadership. “Men deserve to be there and to show their strength,” she says. She has great admiration for the men she has worked with. “When we founded Made In Da Shade, I intentionally included ‘the boys,’ who always placed great trust in me,” she explains. That collaboration was something she always cherished, regardless of her own position. But there was also a downside. “The men found it easier to step into the spotlight. Sometimes I hid behind the men, especially when it came to public tasks like speeches or press contacts,” she admits candidly. “That hurt because people often thought they were the driving force, while I was the one pulling the strings behind the scenes.”
Marjorie has now been the director of RIGHTABOUTNOW Inc., the successful Amsterdam-based production house for hip-hop and urban performance arts, for over ten years. During our conversation, various spheres of influence are discussed, all shaping the way women lead today. She is glad she has always stayed true to herself. “Just as I used to think I had to conform to a male norm of power, I still see that happening around me,” she says. “It’s unfortunate that female leaders, especially in the cultural sector, are often pressured to prove that they fit into male norms. Many women feel like a ‘token’ and abandon their own vision to fit into that managerial role.”
But leadership for women works differently, Marjorie explains. Even though many of us continue to cling to traditional, male ways of leading—where control and hierarchy are central—women often exert their influence in more subtle ways. There needs to be more recognition for this diversity in spheres of influence. “Leadership takes so many forms, often in small actions that you don’t immediately recognize as power,” she says. It’s precisely those small things, such as connection and empathy, that enable women to lead inclusively. According to Marjorie, this type of leadership is better suited to what the world needs now.
In 2024, Marjorie sees that more and more people are beginning to recognize the value of this female style of leadership. Her mission is therefore clear: “I want to help women embrace a leadership role, but in a way that truly suits them—authentically. We need to move away from the alienation of female leadership.” She hopes to inspire a new generation of women who dare to embrace their own strength and bring about changes as impactful as those of the 1960s, when women couldn’t even hold paid jobs without permission. “Imagine what more we can achieve,” she says. “The time is now to push forward and realize new major transformations.”
This article was commissioned by RIGHTABOUTNOW Inc in collaboration with Marjorie Boston and Maarten van Hinte, in the context of the Feminist Impact Award presentation for the production KINGS on November 22, 2024, at the Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam.
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A commissioned article for RAN on theatre directors' Marjorie Boston’s vision on female leadership.