In 1918 (the final year of World War I), five women were appointed deputy inspectors. On 27 May, Miss L.W. Thoden van Velzen and Miss A.O. Steensma (LLM) arrived in Groningen. They didn’t last long, however, as they are they are absent from the 1920 yearbook.
Miss S.W.S. Boot was appointed in Leeuwarden on 29 May, Miss J.C. Langeraar (LLM) in Nijmegen on 12 July and Ms H.L. Schade van Westrum Maarsingh in Amsterdam on 8 October. Maarsingh lasted a year longer than the aforementioned Groningen women. And yet in 1921, Mrs J.C. ten Cate née Houwink (LLM) arrived in Hoogezand as a temporary inspector, but her last yearbook entry is in 1926 at the Groningen office. It is striking that she was hired while married.
Miss Boot was promoted to temporary inspector in Harlingen in 1921. She married in 1924 and is last mentioned in the 1925 yearbook as being stationed in Groningen. J.C. Langeraar (LLM) lasted the longest of her batch and was the only woman inspector for a long time. She died while still working, aged 55.
In 1924, Miss J.A. Engels was appointed supernumerary, followed in 1926 by Miss G.J. Rutgers and Miss A.G. ten Bruggencate. Supernumeraries considered themselves to be the best of the best at the Ministry of Finance and were members of an active professional association. ‘Supernumeraries’ were literally extra employees. They were taken on inspections to learn their trade on the job. In photographs of supernumerary dinners from the time, the men are seen striking ridiculous poses or with folded napkins on their heads. The open wine bottles on the tables no doubt have something to do with this behaviour. There is not a single photograph with a woman in it – at least not in the Tax & Customs Museum’s collection. Whether women excluded themselves from association life or whether female supernumeraries were excluded by definition is not known.
Miss G.J. Rutgers is last mentioned in 1930, she was then a receiver in Goor. Miss A.G. ten Bruggencate is also last mentioned in the 1930 yearbook as a supernumerary in The Hague. Miss Engels still had a long career ahead of her.
S.W.S. Boot (LLM)
Miss S.W.S. Boot (LLM) was one of five women hired as a temporary deputy inspector in 1918. She ended up at the Harlingen inspectorate, where she was promoted to temporary inspector in 1921. There is a photo of a 1920 meeting of Frisian inspectors in Beetsterzwaag: Ms Boot is the young woman. In 1924, she married fellow inspector A.F. Bange, eight years her senior, who was inspector in Harlingen from 1914. It’s highly likely that he’s also in the photo.
On 7 April 1922, A.F. Bange was transferred to the Customs Duties & Excise Taxes Inspectorate, third division in Groningen. On 8 December 1922, Miss Boot was also appointed in Groningen, but to Direct Taxes, second division. Were they already engaged at that time? Did the temporary physical distance between them fuel their love? Unfortunately, we don’t know. As a married woman, she continued to work until 1926. Even though her husband did not have a law degree and she did, she left her job. He later became a chief inspector.
Langeraar
In the early 20th century, many women worked in administrative positions in the Tax Administration. They were definitely respectable women, but their career prospects were few. The conservative attitude of management had hardly changed at all. In 1918, five women were working as temporary deputy inspectors. One of them, Johanna Cornelia Langeraar, who had obtained a law degree from Utrecht University along with a PhD, started working in Nijmegen. Two years later, she became a temporary inspector and on 3 November 1930, she became an inspector and ‘temporary’ disappeared from her job title.
In 1938, she was still working in Nijmegen as an inspector. She is most probably the woman holding roses at the front of this group photo of the Nijmegen office taken that year. She died in 1946 at the age of 55. Of the women in her cohort of deputy inspectors, she is the only one who did not give up working for the Tax and Customs Administration after just a few years.
Engels
In 1924, Miss J.A. Engels (born 1899) was appointed a supernumerary (literally an extra employee) at Registration and Domains. Supernumeraries were expected to work on inspections and to learn by doing. Miss Engels had not studied law, but she had passed both parts of the national notary exam. In 1928, she was appointed a registration and domains receiver in Beetsterzwaag, the first woman to fill that role. Via Emmen and Middelburg, she ended up in Enschede in 1943. There, she was appointed inspector of national taxes in 1946.
Johanna Langeraar had died earlier that year, so Miss Engels was the only woman inspector by then. She was the first woman appointed head of registration and inheritance in Enschede and from 1950 in Apeldoorn as well. In 1948, Miss Engels was interviewed for Wij van Financiën (the Ministry of Finance’s staff magazine). She said she had no problem with being called ‘Miss’, but she did have a problem with being addressed in writing as ‘Mr’.
The interviewer made no real effort and mainly talked about his own ideas and prejudices. Miss Engels politely but firmly objected. According to her, rivalry was greater among men than women, despite what has always been claimed. She believed that men and women deserved equal opportunities, and she answered every question in that spirit.
When they were first appointed, Miss Engels and her two women colleagues (who must have been Rutgers and Ten Bruggencate) appear to have visited Secretary General Jonkheer Van Asch van Wijk. The secretary general told them that he felt that women were unfit for the civil service and that he had told the minister precisely that. Fortunately, Miss Engels took no notice of these harsh words and proved just the opposite. In 1956, she became chief inspector in Apeldoorn, once again the first woman to hold that position. On 1 March 1957, at her own request, she retired.
