Aletta Jacobs
A Dutch doctor who broke university barriers to become a pioneering force for women's health, suffrage, and bodily autonomy.
1854–1929 (age 75)·Dutch physician and feminist·Birthday: February 9
Biography
Aletta Jacobs didn't just enter history; she kicked the door down. In 1871, she persuaded the Dutch Prime Minister to let her attend the University of Groningen, becoming the first woman in the Netherlands to do so. She earned a medical degree and set up a practice in Amsterdam, where the plight of poor women, worn out by constant childbirth, moved her to action. In 1882, she began providing contraceptive advice, effectively founding the world's first birth control clinic. Her feminism was holistic and unrelenting. She fought for better working conditions for shop girls, campaigned against regulated prostitution, and became a central leader in the Dutch women's suffrage movement. In her later years, she took the fight global, traveling internationally for the cause of peace and women's rights, arguing that one could not be achieved without the other.
#1 When Aletta Was Born
The biggest hits of 1854
Aletta's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1854Born
1859Started school
1867Became a teenager
President: Andrew Johnson
1870Could drive
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1872Could vote
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1875Turned 21
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1884Turned 30
President: Chester A. Arthur
1894Turned 40
President: Grover Cleveland
1904Turned 50
New York City opens its first subway line
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1914Turned 60
World War I begins
President: Woodrow Wilson
1924Turned 70
First Winter Olympics held in Chamonix, France
President: Calvin Coolidge"It Had to Be You" — Isham Jones
1929Died at 75
Wall Street crashes, triggering the Great Depression
Gas: $0.21/galPresident: Herbert Hoover"Singin' in the Rain" — Cliff EdwardsBest Picture: The Broadway Melody
Key Achievements
- Became the first woman to officially attend a Dutch university and to earn a medical degree in the Netherlands.
- Established the world's first birth control clinic in Amsterdam in 1882.
- Served as the president of the Dutch Association for Women's Suffrage and was a key organizer of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance.
- Led a successful campaign to improve the working conditions and rest facilities for female shop workers in the Netherlands.
Did You Know?
Her medical thesis studied the effects of different cooking fats on human digestion.
She and her husband, politician Carel Victor Gerritsen, chose not to have children to dedicate themselves fully to social reform.
In 1903, she invented a pessary (diaphragm) for birth control, which she distributed to patients.
She undertook a world tour in 1911-1912 with fellow feminist Carrie Chapman Catt to investigate the global status of women.
“When the mother of the race is free, we shall have a better world.”
