Joke Smit
Joke Smit was a famous Dutch Feminist. The school I go to is named after her. After completing her studies French language and literature, she was a French teacher for 10 year in different schools. In 1966, she became senior researcher at the Institute for Translation Studies at the University of Amsterdam. In 1967 she became a member of the Dutch Labour Party, and she was a city councilor in Amsterdam for 1 year.
She is a hero to me because she fought for the social position of women in the 60s and 70s. We had a wave of feminism at the beginning of the 20th century in the Netherlands. At that time, women gained the right to vote and to be chosen for parliament and the right to access higher education. However, until the late 50s married women were subordinate to their husbands. In the 60s when the economy started to bloom and more women attended higher education, there was a growing dissatisfaction with the lack of opportunities for women to make a career. They could study and get a job, but once they got married, they were fired immediately to stay home with the children.
Joke Smit stood up for equal pay, for equal work, better opportunities for education and the opportunity to continue working once they had children. In that way she wanted to break the traditional gender roles so woman could have the chance to lead an independent existence. She advocated for contraception and abortion. To, in her own words, “ separate the women from the rabbits”.
She has written several texts on these subjects. Her breakthrough came from an article in a literary magazine, "The discomfort in women." The article was the impetus for the 2nd wave of feminism in the Netherlands. In this article she describes the disparity in rights between men and women and the displeasure of women who are educated but as soon as they got married were obliged to stay at home.
She was the mother of two children with a busy job, and it frustrated her that she was an exception in her time. She wrote several texts for magazines and gave lectures. In the 80's the book appeared "There is a Country where Women want to live.", a bundle of her texts about women rights. Education is an important topic.
Many women at that time had the feeling that they did not fully participate in society through their lack of education. They wanted to help their children with homework but didn’t have the knowledge. The first special ‘mothers school’ was established in 1975.
Thanks to this form of 'second chance education' adults and adolescents above the age of 18 nowadays have the opportunity to achieve a secondary school degree once they left school. These days the students from the Joke Smit college are mostly young people who need to complete courses or who had dropped out of school and still want to graduate. But it is also for foreigners who need a Dutch diploma or stay-at-home mothers who never had the opportunity to achieve a degree. Education and knowledge are the best resources to build an independent existence. Partly thanks to Joke Smit's efforts we have this kind of schools, education for anyone who wants to. Why would you disallow a mother who wants to go to school really bad and compel students who don’t even want to go to school. Education for anyone who wants to learn.
Thanks Joke Smit's efforts for women's emancipation the social position of women improved considerably during the 60s and 70s. Her articles and lectures encouraged many men and women to break the traditional gender roles. We still benefit of her philosophy otherwise women would still be second-class citizens sitting at home with kids living a boring life and we might have never had second chance education.
Although she died fairly young, she has been quite influential. She became a symbol for the second wave of feminism. After her death schools, the Joke Smit price and several streets in Dutch municipalities were named after her. In the city of Leiden there is even a monument for her. She died at the age 48 years, in 1981 to breast cancer.
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