Louise van den Plas (24 January 1877 – 4 December 1968) was a Belgian suffragist and the founder of the first Christian feminist movement in Belgium.
Biography
Louise van den Plas was born in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, Belgium, on 24 January 1877. She discovered feminism by reading ''Le grand Catéchisme de la femme'', by , and the writings of
Marie de Villermont Marie de Villermont (1848–1925), countess of Hennequin, was a Belgian artist, writer and feminist.
Life
Marie Emma Éloïse Françoise de Villermont was born at Saint-Josse-ten-Noode on 16 August 1848, the eldest of nine children of the industria ...
(1898).
In March 1899 in Brussels, she met
Marie Duclos, founder, with
Marie Maugeret of the French Catholic feminist association "Christian Feminism". Van den Plas went to Paris to study this movement and then, on the advice of Duclos, she made contact in Brussels with Belgian journalist
Rene Henry and a friend of the latter, , a member of the
Chamber
Chamber or the chamber may refer to:
In government and organizations
* Chamber of commerce, an organization of business owners to promote commercial interests
*Legislative chamber, in politics
* Debate chamber, the space or room that houses delib ...
. The latter were all the more interested in the situation of women as Belgium was moving towards
universal suffrage
Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political stan ...
and the enlargement of the electorate could benefit the
socialists
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the eco ...
. The latter intended to vote in favor of
women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
, but there were fears associated with that.
In May 1902, feminist groups with varied political views created a Feminist Union to weigh in favor of women's suffrage. Van den Plas took this opportunity to represent the Catholic group. "Le Féminisme chrétien de Belgique" (Belgian Christian Feminism) was founded on 6 May 1902. It aimed to improve women's rights and promote feminism among Catholics while respecting the Catholic constitution of the family. It issued a monthly organ, ''Christian Feminism of Belgium'', and provided lectures.
With other feminist organizations, Christian Feminism gave the opportunity for women to enter into family councils and guardianship management, as well as advocating the full civil capacity of women who had obtained legal separation. Through its efforts alone, a woman's testimony was accepted to the acts of civil status (1908). Further, Van den Plas called for the equality of teachers' pay and supported the struggles of feminine unionism along with .
Van den Plas won the sympathy of some of the Catholic newspapers and the Belgian Democratic League for the suffrage of women. She said that women would take a special look at issues of public morality, alcoholism, and school. On 3 March 1912, Christian Feminism founded the Catholic League of Women's Suffrage, with the assistance of
Cyrille van Overbergh. The League initiated an important petition in January 1913, signed by Van den Plas. Several feminist groups followed suit and together, they created the Suffrage Federation in the following month.
During the
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the publication of Christian Feminism's magazine was suspended and Van den Plas founded "Union patriotique des femmes belges" (Patriotic Union of Belgian Women) with
Jane Brigode
Jane Brigode (born Jane Ouwerx; 30 May 1870 – 3 May 1952) was a Belgian liberal and politician. From 1940 until 1945 she was co-president of the Liberal Party. In 1921, she and Marthe Boël founded the ''Union des femmes libérales de l’arro ...
and
Marguerite Nyssens,
which provided for material aid to women. At the end of the war, the magazine reappeared and Van den Plas was offered a free platform in the daily ''Le Soir'' from 1921 to 1940. She died in
Willaupuis, Belgium, on 4 December 1968.
Works
* ''Féminisme'', 1899
* ''Pourquoi les chrétiens doivent être féministes'', 1904
* ''Le Féminisme chrétien de Belgique'', 1905-1940
* ''Revision du code civil la séparation de biens avec communauté d'acquêts substituée al communauté légale comme Droit commun en l'absence de Contrat de mariage'', 1908
* ''Etude sur la revision du titre du contrat de mariage'', 1909
* ''L'éducatioin ménagère'', 1909
* ''Een katholieke vrouw over het vrouwenkiesrecht'', 1911
* ''Le suffrage féminin : Discours prononcé à l'Assemblée générale du Féminisme Chrétien de Belgique : Suppl. au Féminisme Chrétien, mars 1912 '', 1912
* ''Féminisme et catholicisme'', 1912
* ''Le suffrage des femmes : discours prononcé au Congrès de la Ligue démocratique, à Courtrai, le 25 septembre 1911'', 1913
* ''Le féminisme chrétien'', 1913
* ''L'union pratriotique des femmes belges'', 1915
* ''Féminisme maternel'', 1920
* ''Quelques souvenirs de vingt ans d'efforts'', 1922
* ''Le féminisme chrètien (Second Edition)'', 1925
* ''Ou en est le féminisme en Belgique?'', 1931
* ''La lutte contre l'alcoolisme ses ravages en Belgique spécialement du point de vue familial, des moyens en le vaincre'', 1944
* ''Rapport d'activité présenté à l'Assemblée générale'', 1952
* ''Une grave responsabilité des élites'', 1953
Notes
References
Further reading
* Boel M. & Duchene C., ''Le féminisme en Belgique, 1892-1914'', Bruxelles, 1955.
* Camille Joset, ''Le bon féminisme'', Arlon, Éditions de l'Avenir du Luxembourg, 1904.
* Keymolen Denise, ''Victoire Cappe. 1886-1927 : une vie chrétienne, sociale, féministe'', Presses universitaires de Louvain : Bruylant-Academia, 2001
* Keymolen Denise, ''van den Plas, Louise, Marie, Joséphine'', Nouvelle biographie nationale, 1,1988, pp. 339–343.
* Keymolen Denise e.a., ''Pas à pas: L'histoire de l'émancipation de la femme en Belgique'', Service d'État à l'émancipation sociale, Bruxelles, 1991
* Keymolen Denise, ''van den Plas, Louise, Marie, Joséphine'', in Eliane Gubin, Catherine Jacques, Valérie Piette, Jean Puissant (dir.), Dictionnaire des femmes belges, XIX°-XX° s., Bruxelles : Racine, 2006, p. 544–547.
* Peeters Denise, ''Féminisme chrétien. Les femmes dans l'Église catholique en Belgique'', in L. Courtois e.a., Femmes des années 1980, Un siècle de condition féminine en Belgique 1898–1989, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1989, pp. 221–228.
*Van Rokeghem Suzanne, ''Des femmes dans l'histoire en Belgique, depuis 1830'', Éditions Luc Pire, Bruxelles, 2006, p.83.
* Verschoren M., ''Louise van den Plas (1877-1968) en haar christelijk-feministisch engagement voor 1914'', Mémoire de licence, Louvain, 1996.
* Zelis G. & Stessel M., ''Le travail de la femme mariée en Belgique durant l'entre deux-guerres : travail salarié ou travail ménager ? Le discours des organisations chrétiennes'', in L. Courtois e.a., Femmes des années 1980, Un siècle de condition féminine en Belgique 1889–1989, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1989, pp. 63-72
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van den Plas, Louise
1877 births
1968 deaths
Proponents of Christian feminism
Belgian feminists
Belgian suffragists
19th-century Belgian writers
19th-century Belgian women writers
20th-century Belgian writers
20th-century Belgian women writers
Belgian non-fiction writers
Activists from Brussels
Belgian women activists
Catholic feminists
Writers from Brussels