Carry Pothuis-Smit | |
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| Member of the Senate | |
| In office 1920–1937 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Wilhelmina Carolina Benjamina Smit (1872-02-12)12 February 1872 Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Died | 30 August 1951(1951-08-30) (aged 79) Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Spouse | Samuel Pothuis |
Wilhelmina Carolina Benjamina "Carry" Pothuis-Smit (12 February 1872 – 30 August 1951) was a politician and feminist in theNetherlands.[1] She was the first woman elected to theSenate of the Netherlands on 23 March 1920.[2]
The daughter of Barend Marinus Smit and Wilhelmina Carolina Benjamina van den Honert, she was bornWilhelmina Carolina Benjamina Smit inAmsterdam. She earned a teaching certificate inArnhem when she was eighteen and then taught inHaarlem and later in Amsterdam.[3][4]
In 1898, she joined theSocial Democratic Workers' Party. In 1905, Pothuis-Smit founded theSociaal-Democratische Vrouwenclub ("Social Democratic Women's Club") withMathilde Berdenis van Berlekom [nl] andHenriëtte van der Mey [nl]. She was editor of theDe Proletarische Vrouw, a socialist women's paper, from 1905 to 1940 and ofSocialistische Vrouwenbibliotheek, a series of books for socialist women. She attended theInternational Socialist Women's Conference in Stuttgart in 1907 and thesecond International Socialist Women's Conference in Copenhagen in 1910. She continued to be opposed tomilitarism even after her party changed its position.[4]
She served on Amsterdam city council from 1919 to 1924 and in the Dutch senate from 1920 to 1937. She worked to promote social services while she was a member of city council. In the senate, she supported the right of married women to work and the right of women teachers to be able to marry and keep their jobs; she also campaigned for nationaldisarmament.[4]
Following theGerman occupation of the Netherlands in May 1940, she decided to shut downDe Proletarische Vrouw, mainly for financial reasons. After the war, she worked for a time on the women's magazineWij Vrouwen ('We Women'). She joined the DutchLabour Party, even though she continued to hold anti-militarist views.[4]
Pothuis-Smit also published a number of children's books, including:
In 1903, she marriedSamuel "Jozef" Pothuis [nl]; the couple had one son and two daughters.[3]
Pothuis-Smit died in Amsterdam at the age of 78.[3]
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