52 Facts About Aletta Jacobs

Aletta Jacobs led campaigns aimed at deregulating prostitution, improving women's working conditions, promoting peace and calling for women's right to vote.

Aletta Jacobs opened a free clinic to educate poor women about hygiene and child care and in 1882 expanded her services to include distribution of contraception information and devices.

From 1883, when Aletta Jacobs first challenged the authorities on women's right to vote, she strove throughout her life to change laws that limited women's access to equality.

Aletta Jacobs was successful in her campaign to establish mandatory break laws in retail workers' employment and in attaining the vote for Dutch women in 1919.

Aletta Jacobs was instrumental in the establishment of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and an active participant in the peace movement.

Aletta Jacobs is recognized internationally for her contributions to women's rights and status.

Aletta Henriette Jacobs was born on 9 February 1854 in Sappemeer, the Netherlands, to Anna de Jongh and Abraham Jacobs.

Aletta Jacobs was the eighth of 11 children, born into a family of assimilated Jewish heritage.

Aletta Jacobs's father was a doctor from whom she developed an interest from a young age in the field of medicine.

Aletta Jacobs attended the village school and learned needlecraft, completing her education in 1867.

Aletta Jacobs enrolled in one and attended for two weeks, but found it to be "idiotic" and a waste of time.

Aletta Jacobs prepared for the test, studying with her father; her brother Sam, who was a pharmacist; and Cohen, and passed in July 1870, earning a diploma.

Aletta Jacobs was encouraged by Cohen and Samuel Siegmund Rosenstein, rector of the University of Groningen, to continue her studies for two years in preparation for the entry examination for university.

Aletta Jacobs requested permission to begin her university studies prior to taking the entrance examination and was granted provisional approval by Thorbecke to attend as a one-year probationary student.

On 20 April 1871, Aletta Jacobs entered university, recognizing that other women's ability to pursue education would depend on her performance.

On 30 May 1872, shortly after Thorbecke's death, Aletta Jacobs received the official notification of her admittance as a medical student.

Aletta Jacobs met like-minded social reformers, including Annie Besant, Charles Bradlaugh, Charles Robert and George Drysdale, as well as Alice Vickery, who influenced her ideas on social reform.

Aletta Jacobs was assisted by Cornelie Huygens in treating women and children, as women were not permitted to treat men.

Aletta Jacobs began running biweekly clinics to advise them, but demand was so great she had to expand the sessions.

From her work with poor women, Aletta Jacobs recognized that repeated pregnancies, year after year, was not only impacting mothers' health, but causing high rates of infant mortality.

In developing solutions for these women, Aletta Jacobs became convinced that reliable contraception would alleviate suffering and economic hardship resulting from too many children.

In 1883, as the Parliamentary elections ensued, Aletta Jacobs learned from the liberal politician Samuel van Houten that women were not explicitly banned from voting, and she wrote a letter to the mayor and city council of Amsterdam, questioning why she was not included on the voter registration list.

Aletta Jacobs included her evidence that she met all the requirements of a voter.

Aletta Jacobs received a reply that while a narrow interpretation might indicate that women were not barred, custom required that she would need to challenge whether women were entitled to civil rights and full citizenship.

Aletta Jacobs appealed the decision to the Amsterdam District Court, which replied that women were not citizens.

Aletta Jacobs then appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled that as taxes for married women and children were paid by their husbands and fathers, the law was clear that women were not citizens entitled to vote, ignoring the fact that Jacobs paid taxes as an unmarried woman.

Aletta Jacobs joined the Neo-Malthusian League of Holland and along with her husband, continued working to improve social conditions among the country's poor and working classes.

Aletta Jacobs strongly supported universal suffrage, compulsory education and social reforms, such as the establishment of minimum wages and maximum working hours.

On 9 September 1893, Aletta Jacobs, who retained her own name after marriage, went into labor and delivered a son; however, the baby lived only one day because of careless treatment by the midwife during the birth.

Between 1880 and during most of the 1890s, Aletta Jacobs devoted her time to her medical practice and radical politics, publishing articles and traveling with Gerritsen.

Aletta Jacobs published articles in the Sociaal Weekblad defending the use of contraception and highlighting the problems retail workers experienced.

Aletta Jacobs's position focused on health education rather than moral judgment.

In 1897, Aletta Jacobs published De Vrouw: Haar bouw en haar inwendige organen, which was an innovative text describing a woman's anatomy and complete reproductive system, with movable illustrative plates accompanied by explanatory texts.

Aletta Jacobs published Vrouwenbelangen: Drie vraagstukken van aktuelen aard in 1899, which discussed economic independence for women, voluntary family planning and regulating prostitution.

Aletta Jacobs attended the 1899 International Council of Women's 2nd Congress, held in London.

At the turn of the twentieth century in May 1900, together with Arnold Aletrino, Aletta Jacobs co-founded the Nederlandsche Vereeniging tot Bevordering der Belangen van Verpleegsters en Verplegers, bent on improving socio-economic opportunities for nurses.

Aletta Jacobs retired from her medical practice in 1903, thereafter devoting her time to women's suffrage, financing her efforts from the sale of her private library.

In 1903, Aletta Jacobs became president of the Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht, holding the post for the next 16 years.

Aletta Jacobs spearheaded the organization of the 1908 IWSA Congress, the first to be held in the Netherlands.

Aletta Jacobs financed the trip by writing articles about their adventures for the newspaper De Telegraaf.

In 1914, shortly after the start of World War I, Aletta Jacobs promoted holding the International Women's Congress in The Hague, given the country's neutrality.

Aletta Jacobs became the vice-president of both the international organization and the Dutch chapter of WILPF.

Aletta Jacobs stood as a candidate for the Vrijzinnig Democratische Bond in the election of 1918 and though she received more votes than any other woman candidate, she was not elected.

Shortly thereafter, Aletta Jacobs resigned from the presidency of the Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht.

Aletta Jacobs left Amsterdam and moved to The Hague after the suffrage fight was won in 1919.

Between 1922 and 1923, Aletta Jacobs served on the advisory board of the Voluntary Parenthood League, established by Mary Dennett.

Aletta Jacobs continued to attend the conferences of the International Council of Women, International Alliance of Women and WILPF until her death.

Aletta Jacobs's life was adapted into film in 1995 as Aletta Jacobs: Het Hoogste Streven.

In 1903, when she retired, Aletta Jacobs sold her collection of 2,000 books, magazines and pamphlets on women's history to the John Crerar Library in Chicago.

At a time when married women were typically forced to relinquish their names and employment, Aletta Jacobs retained her own identity and continued to work outside her home, inspiring others to follow suit.

Aletta Jacobs's pioneering birth control clinic preceded both Margaret Sanger's and Marie Stopes's clinics in the United States and England by more than three decades and her role in the contraception movement was influential in helping those women who followed in her footsteps, in establishing clinics throughout Europe and the United States by the time of her death.

Aletta Jacobs's campaigns regarding working conditions for women and the right to vote were successful in changing Dutch law, and her work in the peace movement led to the establishment of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.