The women organizers belong to the middle class. The
Socialist party in the Netherlands has been organizing workingwomen into
trade-unions. In this the party has encountered the same difficulties as
exist elsewhere; to the present time it can point only to small successes.
Two of the Socialist woman's rights advocates are Henrietta Roland and
Roosje Vos. Henrietta Roland is of middle-class parentage, being the
daughter of a lawyer; she is the wife of an artist of repute. Roosje Vos,
on the contrary, comes from the lower classes. Both of these women played
an important part in the strike of 1903. They organized the "United
Garment Workers' Union."

In spite of the fact that a woman can be ruler of the Netherlands, the
Dutch women possess only an insignificant right of suffrage. In the dike
associations they have a right to vote if they are taxpayers or own
property adjoining the dikes. In June, 1908, the Lutheran Synod gave women
the same right to vote in church affairs as the men possess. The
Evangelical Synod, on the other hand, rejected a similar measure as well
as one providing for the ordaining of women preachers. An attempt to
secure municipal suffrage for women failed, and resulted in the enactment
of reactionary laws.

In 1883 Dr. Aletta Jacobs (the first woman doctor in the Netherlands),
acting on the advice of the well-known jurist--and later Minister--van
Houten, requested an Amsterdam magistrate to enter her name on the list of
municipal electors. As a taxpayer she was entitled to this right. At the
same time she requested Parliament to grant her the suffrage in national
elections. Both requests were summarily refused. In order to make such
requests impossible in the future, parliament inserted the word "male" in
the election law.[66] These occurrences aroused in the Dutch women an
interest in political affairs; and in 1894 they organized a "Woman's
Suffrage Society," which soon spread to all parts of the country. The
Liberals, Radicals, Liberal Democrats, and Socialists admitted women
members to their political clubs and frequently consulted the women
concerning the selection of candidates. The clubs of the Conservative and
Clerical parties have refused to admit women. At the general meeting in
1906 a part of the members of the "Woman's Suffrage Society" separated
from the organization and formed the "Woman's Suffrage League" (the _Bond
voor Vrouwenkiesrecht_,--the older organization was called _Vereeniging