#alettajacobs

[thebluebloodstudios]

A very happy woman's day to all! Here's to strong women around the globe! 🍾 #happywomansday #malalayousafzai #fridakahlo #alettajacobs #rosaparks #mayaangelou (at The Blue Blood Studios)

[denni1vl]

The Master Class: Philosophy from Examples

“Regulus had forfeited his life both to uphold a promise and to magnify the honor of Rome. Such praise would doubtless have resonated with the Roman public, who had fed on a steady diet of the mos maiorum, that body of customs and exempla borrowed from their ancestors.” - Promises Past: Atilius Regulus and the Dialogue of Natural Law, William R. Nifong

This is a depiction of the Roman goddess Fides, who represented good faith in public affairs and in agreements between two parties. In his article concerning the dialogue of natural law, William R. Nifong first discusses in detail the Roman dedication to Fides, and the way that Roman citizens learned about the values of honor and promise-keeping which were the foundations of that society. In the above passage, he mentions the concept of mos maiorum, the tool that served “ a didactic as well as patriotic end, these stories taught Roamns how to be Roman.”

When I was in high school, I kept two notebooks for my history class notes: one full of notes I took while reading or in class, and one with important people, places and dates. The majority of those were world leaders who had done important things, great or terrible, and therefore needed to know about. I don’t mention this because it’s unusual that I learned lots of names and stories about individuals; quite the contrary, actually. I mention it because this is something that has been done all throughout history and perhaps serves a much deeper purpose than I had really considered until recently.

Since as early as Roman times, perhaps earlier, people have learned about individuals who have had an impact on history, for better or worse. In Rome, these individuals were used to demonstrate, as Regulus does, the importance of upholding promises and executing them in good faith, which was an integral part of being Roman. We learn about people like Martin Luther King, Jr., Adolf Hitler, and a slew of other historical figures in order to teach us about right and wrong. History is not taught simply to test how well a student can memorize information and dates and regurgitate it; we learn about history to understand what it means to be human, and to connect those stories with our own stories.

During the three-day Bertha von Suttner Master Class in the Peace Palace, we did something very similar to this. We learned the stories of individuals who did great work for international peace and women’s rights and suffrage. After that, we spoke as a class of the necessity of creating our own mos maiorum related to peace and justice. We talked largely about the “bad guys”: people who committed atrocity crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide. It took me a little while to make this connection, but during the Master Class, I got to learn about what seems to me to be the mos maiorum of the international peace movement.

“If any married couple in our days offer an attractive type of what the union of a man and a woman may be in the future, when the ecnomic independence of wome will be the rule, and mutual inclination the only reason for marriage, certainly Mr. C. V. Gerritsen and Dr. Aletta Jacobs appraoch that ideal.” - “Dr. Aletta Jacobs and Mr. C.V. Gerritsen” in The Australian Woman’s Sphere, Martina G. Kramers

Some standout individuals - or a pair of individuals, really, include Aletta Jacobs and Carel Gerritsen, Not only are the two of them both influential on their own, but their relationship came to serve as the ideal relationship for feminists worldwide, and to me, as to Martina G. Kramers, approaches the ideal relationship between a man and a woman. The excerpt above is from an article outlining the relationship of Jacobs and Gerritsen in the Australian Woman’s Sphere, an Australian feminist publication, found in The Gerritsen Collection. The couple amassed a collection of various types of literature and periodicals during their lifetime, which is now archived in that collection, which according to its website is the “ greatest single source for the study of women's history in the world.” 

Carel Gerritsen and Aletta Jacobs were both committed to furthering the role of of women in society. Jacobs, the first woman doctor in Holland, also fought for her and all women’s right to vote. Gerritsen supported these aims and also, according to Kramers, “[took] every occasion to give women employment [...] he has always supported the cause of women; he is also a strong supporter of peace and arbitration.” During the Master Class, Andrew Blom, a professor at Central Michigan University, talked about their relationship and the way that they interacted, focusing on their relationship and their ultimate decision to marry. 

“We both agreed that a legal marriage was out of the question. On the other hand, the only disadvantage to a marriage of ‘free individuals,’ in which both of us maintained our full freedom and economic independence - even continuing to live apart - would be the offense to conventional attitudes. As two completely independent people, we would be able to live, for better or worse, according to our own beliefs. Our union was based on mutual respect and a shared philosophy of life.” - Aletta Jacobs, Memories 

“Dionysius of Halicarnassus defined history as philosophy from examples,” says Nifong in his article. The same way that Regulus embodied the Roman virtues of honor and promise-keeping, to me Jacobs and Gerritsen’s relationship embodies the relationship between “free individuals” that would allow freedom for both of them to continue their lives, without one becoming servant to the other. This is the part of the talk that really interested me: it is so important that both Jacobs and Gerritsen were workers for women’s rights and for peace, but even more significant that they live these ideals out in their own lives.  

“I pointed out [to Bertha von Suttner] that [her] ideals could be realized only when women had achieved full civil rights. The philosophy of peace would gain government recognition when women’s opinions were also being pressed in parliaments everywhere.” - Aletta Jacobs, Memories 

Jacobs says in her memoirs that she speaks to Bertha von Suttner about the idea that men and women must be equal in order to achieve peace, and this is an idea that grew with her throughout her life. Blom talked about her memories of reading John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women when it was first translated into Dutch, and this seems to be where she draws her inspiration from. She states in Memories that she was “alternately inspired, depressed, and terrified by the Dutch version: The Slavery of Woman, “ and that it became her “personal touchstone.” 

This is interesting because John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor Mill as a couple were another forward-thinking union between two individuals working for a similar goal. The Mills both publish similar works related to women’s rights and women’s roles in a marriage. After her father read this book aloud to her family, Jacobs became interested in and began to work for later in her life women’s right and suffrage, becoming someone who inspires others, like those at the master class, to work for the same things. To me, it’s cool that Jacobs was influenced by the Mills, because ultimately she and Gerritsen became an influential couple as well.

Just as Regulus makes a promise as an individual on behalf of a nation, Jacobs and Gerritsen live their individual lives on behalf of a much larger ideal: women’s rights and through them, peace. Becoming educated on something through stories has already been a theme throughout this class, and it was continued in the Master Class as we learned about Carel Gerritsen and Aletta Jacobs. During this class, we created a sort of mos maiorum on individuals that really live out the idea of peace and equality in not only their work, but their personal lives, which to me adds a much deeper meaning to their work as peace activists. 

[denni1vl]

The World Does Not Stand Still

“Libraries are the most important and the richest source of information on problems which concern mankind as a whole.” - André Maurois, “Public Libraries and their Mission” 

Since I was a child, the public library in my hometown (pictured above, the MacDonald Public Library) was my favorite place to go. I would spend hours there, reading, checking out books, and attending children’s programs there. I would read anything on the shelves in the children’s area: chapter books, biographies of famous people, books on science, history, cooking, cars, anything. 

Since then, I have had a pretty decent understanding of how amazing libraries are, and all the information available in them. Working there when I was in high school further cemented that point: I got to help other people find the information that they were looking for, whether it was for a school project, for work, or just because they were interested. The public library in my hometown is indeed “the richest source of information” for a multitude of pursuits.

Even in cultures that traditionally do not open up education to everyone, libraries are extremely important instruments of transmitting education through reading to those individuals. 

“Because of the customs of the country, few women come to the library, but in many cases the men explain that the books they borrow are for their family, and that they are often read aloud” - André Maurois, “Public Libraries and their Mission”

In this UNESCO publication, Maurois is talking specifically about India, where they set up libraries in order to help educate the population and provide those who could read the opportunity to further their education. Furthermore, the idea that men would read aloud to their family is extremely important in the lives of people such as Aletta Jacobs, whose father would read aloud to the whole family, and later inspired her to become the first Dutch woman to become a doctor, and a leader in the suffrage and peace movements.

I think André Maurois sums it up pretty well: these places are some of the most essential resources in finding information about pretty much anything, and reading is an essential piece of a person’s life and education. However, more than that, they are places where people can find information about, as he says “problems which concern mankind as a whole.” 

“The citizen of a democracy who wishes to fulfil his duties conscientiously must go on learning all his life. The world does not stand still the day we leave our class-room. How are we to make up our minds, how are we to uphold what is reasonable and oppose what is criminal folly, if we do not know what it is all about?” - André Maurois, “Public Libraries and their Mission”

He goes on to talk about education and libraries in conjunction, stating that citizens of democracies who “wishes to fulfil his duties conscientiously” must educate himself on these problems. Andrew Carnegie seems to have held this same belief. In his “The Gospel of Wealth,” he asserts that "[i]n bestowing charity the main consideration should be to help those who help themselves." And that’s exactly what he did: Carnegie gave up his fortune to build over 1,500 libraries across the United States so that people would be able to utilize them to educate themselves. 

What Carnegie and many other influential individuals throughout history have in common are that they are autodidacts; that is, they educated themselves rather than relying on a system of public education to do it for them. They are self-taught. These kinds of people, including Aletta Jacobs and other influential peace activists, were able to “know what it is all about” and subsequently take action towards what they believed to be “upholding what is reasonable,” reasonable being international peace, and peace through law. 

It is for these purposes that libraries such at the Peace Palace Library, whose reading room is pictured here, are essential, specifically for propagating peace, and peace through law, which is something that Carnegie was well aware of. When he gave money to build the Peace Palace, he was convinced that there must also be a library next to it, so that education on international law might also take place there. In face, he specified that a certain amount of the money, a substantial portion of it, be spent on building the best possible collection of international law materials. The Peace Palace Library’s website declares it the “the oldest and most prestigious libraries specialized in international law,” and it is open to the public. This library being open to the public is testament to the importance of educating oneself on the “problems which concern mankind as a whole,” which I would argue include issues of international law.

“that is probably what UNESCO is going to help us all to achieve; and, perhaps, one of the best ways will be in really making people understand why human rights and freedoms are one of the foundations on which we hope to build peace.” - Eleanor Roosevelt, “Making Human Rights Come Alive”

Eleanor Roosevelt speaks of education as necessary to to help “understand why human rights and freedoms are one of the foundations on which we hope to build peace,” and international law libraries that are open to the public are especially important; these places serve as hubs for education and understanding on topics related to peace through law specifically. While it is obvious that public libraries in general can serve this purpose also, libraries dedicated to international law make this type of information much easier to find, and lend credibility and order to it, as well as creating an intellectual community to discuss and share ideas. 

“Unesco’s main task is to work for peace through international culture. In this, the public library is the natural assistant.” André Maurois, “Public Libraries and their Mission”

These communities and resources are essential, because, as Roosevelt says in her speech, “the only way we can guarantee that these rights will be observed is by doing a good job educationally.” As is UNESCO’s main task, libraries like the Peace Palace Library also work for peace through international culture, and education. UNESCO, too, constructs libraries all over the world to help further its mission of “peace through international culture,” which is testament to the importance of libraries in relation to peace education, as well as education in general. Since libraries are such an important piece of general education, public libraries dedicated to international law are clearly also an important part of education on peace and human rights. 

“Education must continue from the cradle to the grave.” - Bertha von Suttner

So, as Maurois says, the world does not stand still, and we must continually educate ourselves in order to participate in it and to make it a better place; Bertha von Suttner’s quote above drives home this point further. Education does not stop, especially regarding issues of human rights and that “concern mankind.” Public libraries serve as one very important medium for this education to take place, and public libraries dedicated to international law help to serve this purpose even more specifically. The world does not stand still, and our education on “what is reasonable and what is criminal folly” must not stand still either, and libraries are an essential tool in keeping our education from doing just that.