biography
| name: |
Jacobs, Aletta Henriëtte
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pronunciation:
[yahkops]
| sex:
| female
|
| lived:
| (1854–1929)
|
| biography:
| Dutch academic and feminist, born in Sappemeer, N Netherlands. She studied mathematics, physics, and medicine at Groningen on Thorbecke's special recommendation, and was the first Dutch woman to be awarded a degree in medicine. Her two sisters were also trailblazers: Charlotte became the first female pharmacist and Frédérique the first woman with a secondary school teaching diploma in mathematics. Aletta set up as a general practitioner in Amsterdam and gave free consultations and courses in hygiene to try and improve the health of working-class women. She fought for birth control and women's suffrage and against prostitution. In 1903 she became president of the Dutch Suffragette Movement, co-founder of the World Federation for Women's Suffrage (1904) and travelled the world (1911–12) with its chairman, Carrie Chapman Catt, to make the movement known internationally. She also called for an international women's peace conference in The Hague, which was held in 1915. |
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