Van de Vondervoort was born in 1950 in , located in the municipality of
Raalte, and she was raised Roman Catholic. She attended the
Enschede Social Academy until 1972, and she subsequently started her career as a coordinator at a play and parenting education foundation in Groningen. She became a member of the Labour Party in 1974. Van de Vondervoort entered the
Municipal Council of Groningen in September 1978, and she became her party's
parliamentary leader in May 1981. She was appointed
alderwoman for education, culture, and
emancipation in April 1986, and she defended the construction of the new post-modernist building of the
Groninger Museum, located in a canal next to
the city's railway station. During her tenure, the Groningen Credit Bank, the municipal debt assistance office, incurred losses of because of bad investments. Two aldermen directly responsible left the executive in 1992, while Van de Vondervoort received support from all
coalition parties to stay on, in order to prevent a governance crisis. She was subsequently involved in the financial and administrative reorganization of the Groningen Credit Bank. Van de Vondervoort continued her predecessor's reorganization of the municipal bureaucracy, and she was forced to cut spending on amenities and municipal employees. She reached an agreement with unions on the working conditions of civil servants, in which the lowest-paid and older workers were mostly spared. The municipal energy and transportation companies and its auditors' office were privatized. When she received another term as alderwoman for finances in 1994, she stated that she might not finish her four-term term if another position came along. Van de Vondervoort sat on several Labour Party expert committees on finances and on local and regional governance. == First Kok cabinet and further career ==