Rut Kolínská is the daughter of a protestant pastor. The mother of five children, she spent 18 years on maternity leave. She has a university degree in Ethnography. Rut's interest in family issues originated in 1988 when she co-founded the environmental group, Prague Mothers. She founded the Network of Mother Centers as a professional civic association in 2001. However, the first centre was opened as early as 1992, shortly after Kolínská got the inspiration from the model of Mother Centers in Germany. Rut was named Woman of Europe 2003, which consequently helped with fundraising for the network.