Amsterdam women: Aletta Jacobs

 

A woman that really stuck out to me was Aletta Jacobs. She was a physician and a women suffrage activist. She was also the first woman in the Netherlands to go to university. She created the first birth control clinic in the world and advocates for better working conditions for women. When she was practicing medicine, she became more aware of health issues in the Netherlands especially for sex workers. I really liked how she stuck up for the people who were mostly overlooked. She saw an issue and wanted to find a solution to it. I like how she wasn’t afraid to voice her opinion on women suffrage rights and for sex workers to have better work conditions.

I think what makes her contribution important in the Netherlands was that she wanted to improve the conditions of people who were prostitute. A quote that comes to my mind is “who is more at fault? People sinning for the pay or people paying for the sin”. Jacobs saw that prostitution was a paying job for people. She wanted them to get the treatment they deserve so she created a free clinic so they get that. She also fought for women to have a break and have a stool to sit in when they need it. Her contribution change the way the Netherlands saw prostitution.

I don’t think she has been commemorated well enough for what she accomplished. She does have awards and institutes named after her. She also has a plaque with a picture of her in it on her house in Amsterdam. I think she deserves a statue named after her though. She did so much for women suffrage rights and to make the world better for prostitution. It is good that she has awards named after her so her work can live on through other people's works. All of hard work is getting some attention in society but I feel like more people need to know about her. She need to be taught in schools so that more people know about her accomplishments.