Maria Wilhelmina Hendrika "Mietje" Hoitsema (1847–1934) was a
Dutch feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
.
Personal life
Mietje Hoitsema was born on 10 July 1847 in
Britsum.
She was the daughter of the
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
Synco Hoitsema (1799–1860) and Rika van Bolhuis (1808–1895) and married the doctor Johannes Rutgers (1850–1924) in 1885.
She became a
teacher
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...
in 1865 and was the
principal of a girls' school from 1873-1885.
She was injured in a car accident in 1913 and withdrew from public life in 1918.
Hoitsema died on October 25, 1934, in
Rijswijk
Rijswijk (), formerly known as Ryswick ( ) in English, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. Its population was in , and it has an area of , of which is water.
The municipality also includes th ...
.
Career
In 1894 Mietje Hoitsema became chairperson of the local
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
branch of the Dutch women
suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in representative democracy, public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally i ...
union (
Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht
The Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht (Association for Women's Suffrage) was a women's rights organization active in the Netherlands from 1894 to 1919. It was devoted to women's suffrage. It was the main women's suffrage movement in the Netherland ...
). She founded an association to support the rights of women, children and working families (1895) and an association for the support of unmarried mothers (1898) and an association for the rights of professional women (1903). She was also a member of the
Malthusian League, which fought for the rights for
sex education
Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual acti ...
and
birth control
Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...
.
Hoitsema joined the
Sociaal Democratische Arbeiders Partij
The Social Democratic Workers' Party ( nl, Sociaal-Democratische Arbeiderspartij, SDAP) was a Dutch socialist political party existing from 1894 to 1946, and a predecessor of the social democratic Labour Party.
History 1893–1904
The SDAP was f ...
(SDAP) (Social Democratic Workers' Party) at the turn of the century. She left the SDAP in 1905 as the party prioritized elimination of class difference over gender differences as well as the SDAP's abandonment of advocacy of women's voting rights.
See also
*
List of suffragists and suffragettes
References
External links
*
"Historici", article on Hoitsema in Dutch.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoitsema, Mietje
1847 births
1934 deaths
Dutch suffragists
Dutch women's rights activists
International Congress of Women people
People from Leeuwarden