Aletta Henriëtte Jacobs (1854 - 1929)

Born 9 Feb 1854 in Sappemeer, Hoogezand-Sappemeer, Groningen, Nederland

Ancestors

Wife of Carel Victor Gerritsen — married 28 Apr 1892 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Nederland

Died 10 Aug 1929 at age 75 in Baarn, Utrecht, Nederland

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Astrid Spaargaren [send private message]

Aletta Henriëtte Jacobs is geboren in Groningen na 1811

Biography

Aletta Henriëtte Jacobs is Notable.

The first Dutch Female that Graduated at University in the Netherlands.

She studied Medicine and became the first Dutch Female Physician.

Aletta is committed and dedicates her life to the health, freedom and equality of women and for women's suffrage. She became especially famous because of her struggle as a feminist.

Aletta Henriëtte Jacobs is born in Sappemeer in 1854 as daugther and the 8th child of Abraham Simonsz Jacobs and Anna Israels de Jongh.^[1][2]

Birthhouse Aletta Jacobs 3rd on the right[3]

Aletta's father is a "heel- and vroedmeester" (Doctor and Obstetrician).^[1]

Abraham Jacobs[4]

Aletta's mother, with a husband who is always away, is taking care of the household.

Anna Israels Jacobs-de Jongh[5]

The family Jacobs moves in 1859 to the Noorderstraat in Sappemeer. Aletta lives there from age 4 till 21. ^[6]

Aletta writes in her autobiography^[7] that she, since she was 6 years old, wants to become a doctor, just like her father and her brother Julius. Never realizing her gender would be a problem, as all sons and daughters were treated equal at home.

"Van mijn zesde jaar af heb ik steeds met de meest mogelijke beslistheid verklaard, dat ik, net als Pa en Julius, dokter wou worden. Geen oogenblik is toen of later de gedachte bij mij opgekomen, dat dit voor een meisje moeilijk zou gaan. Hoe kon dat ook? Thuis werd immers tusschen jongens en meisjes geenerlei verschil gemaakt."

Staying to her autobiography, seeing she can't be what she wants to be, Aletta is suffering of malaria, and not seeing a reason to live. Her brother and father are trying to find her solutions. They encourage her to get her apprentice papers and Aletta's father, using his influence, gets the director/rector to aprove Aletta to join the "boys" RHB-school.

Aletta, after she obtained her apprentice pharmacists exam, is allowed by the rector to join as a listener, at the Rijks Hogere Burgerschool in Sappermeer.

HBS Voorm. Rijks Hogere Burgerschool in Sappemeer[8]

To subscribe to university was another challenge for Aletta.

Aletta, as said, wrote a letter in 1871 to the politician Johan Rudolph Thorbecke asking for permission to be admitted to the University of Groningen to the faculty of medicine. Although the position of prime minister did not exist then, Thorbecke was obvious the leader of Dutch government. The story says Thorbecke consultated her father first. But shared his opinion that if a father likes/wants to let his daughter study it must be made possible.

Short after the death of Thorbecke, Aletta receives 30-05-1872 a message she was given official permission - on trial - to study. The first woman! ^[9]

Aletta marries after several years of a "free marriage" at the age of 38 in 1892 in Amsterdam, with the grain trader and politician Carl Victor Gerritsen. because they want to have children.^[10]

Carl was her friend, a liberal politician and her equal in political thought about freedom of female.

Carl Victor Gerritsen, 1880.[11]

Aletta and Carl will have one child, a son. Born 1893, but passing away the same day as he was born, according to Aletta's autobiography, because of a mistake of the accoucheur at birth. How sad is that. Aletta been fighting for female to avoid unwanted pregnacy, helping so many at delivering. ^[12]

Aletta is hardly known these days for being the first female Medical Doctor but known especially for her efforts/fights to give female more rights and freedom.

Film of her is found as she visits Berlin.^[13]

Aletta, living in Den Haag, dies at the age of 75 in 1929 in Baarn, Nederland.^[14]

Free translation of WikiPedia:^[15]

==Aletta was an early fighter and encourager for higher education for women. In 1870 she was the first Dutch woman officially admitted to a high school. She visited the National Higher Burger School in her hometown. Aletta could only be there as a listener.

A year later, in 1871, she asked the liberal minister Thorbecke permission to study at the university. The note she sent is still at the National Archives, as well as the Minister's answer, not directed to Aletta, but it was directed to her father. She was admitted in 1871 as a medical student at the University of Groningen, initially for a trial period of one year.

On his deathbed Thorbecke gave Jacobs permission to join the examinations.

Aletta Jacobs was not the first female student - that was a few centuries earlier Anna Maria van Schurman - but she is the first woman that finnished her university studies successfully. Her sister Charlotte became the second student at the University of Groningen.

Jacobs achieved her medical finals in 1877 and 1878, which made her the first female Dutch doctor of the Netherlands, and she went after her PhD (1879) to Amsterdam working as a general practitioner, where she held free consultation hours, gave courses and introducing pessary as a contraceptive (formerly only the diaphragm was used to support prolapsed uteri). She was a member of the New Malthusian Bond.'

Aletta Jacobs was the most famous Dutch representative of the first feminist wave. The fight for women's suffrage is indirectly related to Aletta Jacobs. Originally the law proposed a wage limit to vote. But because Aletta was a doctor, she met this wage limit easily, and she wanted to use her right to vote. Only after Aletta wanting to use her right of voting, the ban for voting for women was explicitly included in the law.

Jacobs was president of the Society for Women's Suffrage and visited the international women's meetings of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. Because of WW-I the the planned meeting in Berlin in 1915 couldn't take place, she took the initiative for the International Congress of Women in The Hague.

Jacobs married politician Carel Victor Gerritsen (1850-1905) in 1884, in a free marriage. In 1892 she marries for practical reasons; for the law. Thereby Aletta had to take a vow of obedience to her lawful husband, who was then in the law. She did, but under protest.

During the Second Boer War Jacobs felt involved and cared for the fate of the Afrikaners, and she complained in fierce terms about the concentration camps arranged by the British for children and women of the struggling farmers. During World War I she campaigned in the Netherlands and abroad for peace.

The personal archive of Aletta Jacobs is now at Atria, knowledge institute for gender and women's history.==^[16]

30-10-2017 - The archive of the papers of Aletta Jacobs at the Atria is acknowledged as World Heritage^[17] and is added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.^[18]

Birth

Aletta Henriëtte Jacobs is born 09-02-1854 in Sappemeer, The Netherlands, as daughter of Abraham Jacobs, 36 years of age, physician and obstetrician, and of Anna de Jongh, 36 years of age.^[1][2]

Marriage

Carel Victor Gerritsen, without occupation, born in Amersfoort, living in Amsterdam, 42 years of age, son of Henricus Aloijsius Gerritsen , without occupation and of Elisabeth Brasser, both living in Amersfoort, - marries 28-04-1892 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, with Aletta Henriëtte Jacobs, Doctor of medicine, physician, born in Sappermeer, living in Amsterdam, 38 years of age, daughter of Abraham Jacobs and of Anna de Jongh, both deceased.^[10]

Death

Doctor Aletta Henriette Jacobs, without occupation, born Sappermeer, living in 's Gravenhage (Den Haag), widow of Carel Victor Gerritsen, dochter of Abraham Jacobs and of Anna de Jongh, both deceased, passed away 14-08-1929 in Baarn, The Netherlands, at the age of 75 years.^[14]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Netherlands, Groningen Pr...l Registration, 1811-1940 Sappemeer Geboorten, huwelijken, ov...ksafkondigingen 1854-1855 Image 9 of 600 Birth1854-FamilySearch
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Birth1854-WieWasWie
3. ↑ Borgercompagniesterstraat-Gemeentearchief Hoogezand-Sappemeer editor S.Sanders en Zn., Collection of A.M.Schiltkamp, Fotonr.1457, ID SAc_1457
4. ↑ Beeldbankgroningen.nl-AbrahamJacobs Identificatienummer NL-GnGRA_1990_222, editor Godfried de Jong, 1880-1882, collectie Groninger Archieven.
5. ↑ AnnadeJongh-GeheugenVanNederland From: N 1116/23. The mother of Aletta Jacobs, collection De Nederlandse arbeidersbeweging to 1918, Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, before 1918.
6. ↑ GroningeninBeeld-HouseAlettaGrewUp
7. ↑ Herinneringen van Dr.Aletta H.Jacobs-DBNL author Dr.Aletta H. Jacobs, publisher van Holkema en Warendorf, 1924.
8. ↑ Rijksmonumenten-HBSRijksHogereBurgerschool door A.J.(Ton) van der Wal- Dutch photographer. Working for the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, January, 1976
9. ↑ BiographyAletta-KNAW Resources.Huygens Jacobs, Aletta Henriëtte (1854-1929)
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1} Marriage1892-WieWasWie BS Huwelijk, Erfgoedinstelling Noord-Hollands Archief Plaats Instelling Haarlem Collectiegebied Noord-Holland Aktenummer Reg.9 fol. 34 Registratiedatum 28-04-1892 Akteplaats Amsterdam
11. ↑ Carl Victor Gerritsen 1880-dbn
12. ↑ http://www.alettajacobs.org/atria/Aletta_Jacobs/jaartallen Death1893-AlettaJacobs.org
13. ↑ Aletta at Berlin-RTVNoord maandag 11 november 2013, 15:20, Eerste bewegende beelden van Aletta Jacobs 1915 Berlin
14. ↑ ^{14.0 14.1} Death1929-Haagsgemeentearchief 0335-01.1565 Overlijdensakten Den Haag, Aktenr.144, Inventarisnr.1565
15. ↑ AlettaJacobs-WikiPedia
16. ↑ Atria-Emancipation&FemaleHistory
17. ↑ Werelderfgoed-NOS
18. ↑ Work of Aletta recognized as-UnescoHeritage

• Atria-AlettaJacobsWebPage
• Aletta Jacobs Prijs
• BiographyAletta-DigitaalVrouwenlexiconHuygensING Mineke Bosch, Jacobs, Aletta Henriëtte, in: Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland.
• PassengerslistS.S.Arabic1925-FamilySearch New York, New York Passen...ew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957 3627 - vol 8292-8293, Mar 26, 1925 Image 651 of 675.