LAB
In 1913, Miss L. Meijer (born 1886) became the first woman to work as an analyst at the Laboratory of the Ministry of Finance. Analysts examined product samples supplied by Customs. In 1917, two new women analysts were hired, Miss A.J.M. van Tright and Sophia Boerema (born 1898). Of the 14 analysts at that time, three were women. A year later, Van Tright was no longer working there, but two new women had arrived: Gertje Helena Nieske Zeldenthuis (born 1896) and Johanna Cornelia Wichers (born 1892), who had already trained as a nurse at the Civil Hospital from 1912 to 1914. It is worth noting that their fathers (Ebbel Boerema, Jan Zeldenthuis and Casper Melchior Balthasar Wichers) were already working as analysts at the Laboratory.
Up until 1940 (the last year studied), the chemists were all men, even though women were not excluded from studying chemistry. As early as 1911, Tetta van der Goot earned a PhD in chemistry from the University of Amsterdam, the first Dutch woman to do so.
In 1924, a distinction was made for the first time between analysts first class and ordinary analysts. All the men and Ms Meijer become analysts first class. The remaining three women stayed at their existing rank. One more man was hired after them, but he disappeared from view the following year. It should be noted that seniority, or order of entry, was observed for promoting both men and women.
Anna Sophia Zinkweg
Miss Anna Sophia Zinkweg (born 7 September 1905 in Ede) was an exception. In 1930, she was an ordinary analyst with six people ahead of her in line for promotion. In 1934, she appears as an analyst first class, ahead of her women colleagues Zeldenthuis and Van Ketel. A male colleague, A. Luinge (born 1896), also seems to have been promoted to a higher scale in 1934, even though he was positioned between Miss Zeldenthuis and Miss Van Ketel.
We also know that Anna Sophia Zinkweg lived at 68 I Plantage Middenlaan in Amsterdam. Her father was a teacher. During the war, her bike – a different one each time – was stolen three times: on 5 May 1941, 7 July 1942 and 18 March 1943. She died young and according to her obituary, ‘quite unexpectedly’, in Deventer on 21 July 1948; she was only 42 at the time. Her younger sister Lijntje Cornelia married Douwe van Dijk and lived in Deventer with their daughter Anneke. So it is likely that Anna Sophia was there visiting family. The mystery remains as to what made Anna Sophia Zinkweg so exceptional that the seniority rule was broken for her.
Secret marriage?
In 1925, Miss Meijer and Miss Wichers wound up at the Laboratory of the Ministry of Finance. In January 1919, Miss Meijer was already married to her male colleague H.A. Stoke (born 1885), who had joined the lab on 8 November 1911. Marriages and engagements were published in the newspaper, so they weren’t a secret. But when the couple were both promoted to analyst first class in 1924, the civil service yearbook shows Meijer as unmarried (Miss Meijer). In 1924, a Royal Decree had proclaimed that women civil servants under the age of 45 had to retire upon marriage (RD 13 March 1924, no 122/General Civil Service Regulations 1931, art. 97). That Mrs Stoke-Meijer stopped working seems to indicate that she was a victim of this new law. That left only 9 analysts, two of whom were women.
The following year, another three new women colleagues were recruited so that there were five women in a team of 12. In 1928, Miss S. Boerema moved up to analyst first class and L. Meijer returned to the analyst team as Mrs L. Stoke-Meijer. Perhaps there was a staff shortage and she was missed, being a very experienced analyst. Her husband, H.A. Stoke, was now assistant, the third man in the laboratory. Stoke-Meijer did not automatically return to her old rank of analyst first class, but she was one of the leading analysts. From 1930 to 1934, laboratory staff are not mentioned in the yearbooks. By 1934, Mrs Stoke-Meijer had disappeared from the lab. She had a long life ahead of her, dying in Soest on 6 February 1969 at the age of 83.
