'Wilskracht, durf en onverpoosden ijver' : Charlotte Jacobs (1847-1916), eerste vrouwelijke apotheker in Nederland en Nederlands-Indië

Abstract

External PhD candidate

Annette Jenowein investigated how women have changed the meaning of gender by

claiming their place in traditionally male-dominated domains. Her research

focuses on the life of Charlotte Jacobs: the first woman to establish herself as an independent pharmacist in the Dutch East Indies, a profession that was then regarded as a male profession. Since 1866, when girls were allowed to take the apprentice pharmacist's exam, a woman in the pharmacy was no longer a peculiarity. But when the first woman graduated as a pharmacist in 1881, (male) colleagues openly questioned whether a woman could also manage a busy pharmacy and establish business contacts just as well as a man could. Charlotte Jacobs, sister of Aletta Jacobs (1854-1929) - who was seven years younger and was a doctor and advocate for women's suffrage - managed to run her pharmacy in Batavia for nearly thirty years, all of which she managed exclusively with female assistants. Jenoweins research shows that the entry of women into male domains, such as science and higher professional work, has not only changed the meaning of gender, but has also radically changed the meaning of these institutions. After her death, Charlotte Jacobs earmarked a large part of her assets for a study fund for women and girls who wanted to study at a university but could not pay the costs themselves. This Charlotte Jacobs Study Fund still exists and flourishes and annually supports an average of thirty women and girls who want to study at a Dutch university.