Aletta Jacobs

The activities of the Nieuw Malthusiaansche Bond took a more practical course when the first woman doctor in the Netherlands and a prominent feminist, Dr. Aletta H. Jacobs (1854-1929), who happened to be married to C.V. Gerritsen, started distributing contraceptives. She had noticed a publication on the development of the pessarium occlusivum by the German gynecologist Mensinga, and started a special consulting-hour in an Amsterdam working-class quarter. In her autobiography Jacobs mentions hostile reactions among her colleagues. Her dignified and concise defence of contraception did not convince the medical profession in the Netherlands, but did much to silence uninformed critique.

Dr Jacobs's consulting hours

Hostile reaction by Pinkhof and Mendes de Leon

Dr. Jacobs's defence of contraception

Aletta Jacobs's memoirs

Links

• A biography of Aletta Jacobs
• Aletta Jacobs online at Aletta Instituut voor Vrouwengeschiedenis, formerly the International Information Centre and Archives for the Women's Movement IIAV, the main repository of Aletta Jacobs's papers
• A.H. Jacobs, 'Willekeurige beperking van het kindertal'. In: Vrouwenbelangen. Drie vraagstukken van actueelen aard, Amsterdam, Veen, 1899, p. 62-83, is available from Bebook and Project Gutenberg
• A digital edition of Aletta Jacobs's memoirs is available from dbnl · digitale bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse letteren