Susanna Groeneweg

Vocation

Notable

Dutch politician for the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP). She was the first woman to be elected into the Dutch parliament. Het father Arie Groeneweg (1833-1899) was a farmhand and grocer, her mother Emmigje de Ruiter (1831-1906) a housewife. Suzannee nver married and became a teacher in Rotterdam. She was active in the work for people's education, and also for gender equality, although she did not participate in eseparate women's groups but preferred to work from within the party. She was also active within the temperance union and the pacifist movement. Groeneweg was a member of the central committee of the social democratic party, SDAP, in 1917, when partial woman suffrage was introduced: women could be voted into office, but not vote themselves. In 1918, when the first elections after women's suffrage was held, she was elected to parliament as the first woman. As of 1 January, 1920, women in the Netherlands got the right to actively vote as well (which right they could first use at the 1922 elections). Suze Groeneweg was re-elected the same year, and six other women joined her in the house of representatives. Groeneweg stayed member of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands until June 1937. She was also member of the municipal council of Rotterdam between 1919 and 1931, and the States-Provincial of South Holland between 1919 and 1937. On 30 August 1937 she was knigthed. She died 19 October 1940 in Barendrecht. Link to Wikimedia