BU Research Blog

Last week I was contacted by a Dutch journalist, Els Knaapen, about the live and work of Francijntje de Kadt.  The latter was the first chair of the Dutch Midwifery Association and I had come across her 30 years ago as part of my own PhD research.  Els was interested in the contribution Francijntje had made in the town of Enkhuizen after her retirement as a midwife.  As part of a radio programma called ‘Meer Vrouw op Straat’, refering to the fact that too few women have been given streetnames to honour their contributions to society.  Els was calling for the Enkhuizen town council to name a straat after Francijntje, just like the town of Vlaardingen had done a decade ago.

Some 15 years ago I proposed to the city of Vlaardingen argueing that Francijntje de Kadt deserved a street name, as highlighted in an earlier BU Research Blog. With my recommendation I sent the ‘Street Name Committee’ in Vlaardingen my Dutch-language publications on the work of Francijntje de Kadt [1-3]. A few months later the secretary to the Street Name Committee wrote to say that my proposal had been accepted and that her name would be given to a street in a new development of the former local hospital grounds.

Yesterday the radio programme, which is part of a progressive station BNNVARA, was aired in which Els Knaapen justified why Enkhuizen needs to honour its former citizen.  In Enkhuizen Francijntje was active in maternity care education and she was a member of the Assocation for Women’s Votes.  All this after she retited from being the town’s midwife of Vlaardingen.

1. van Teijlingen, E. (2002) Ondergang eerste pensioenfonds voor vroedvrouwen (in Dutch: Decline of the first pension fund for midwives), Tijdschrift voor Verloskundigen (in Dutch: Journal for Midwives), 27(12): 684.
2. van Teijlingen, E.R. (2003a) Berichten – Francijntje de Kadt (1858-1929), Tijdschrift voor Verloskundigen (in Dutch: Journal for Midwives), 28(12): 630-633.
3. van Teijlingen, E.R. (2003b) Francijntje de Kadt (1858-1929). Vroedvrouw te Vlaardingen en eerste voorzitter van de Nederlandsche vroedvrouwenvereeniging, Tijd-schrift (in Dutch: Time-Magazine) 88: 14-23.