Joke Smit

Johanna Elisabeth (Joke) Smit (27 August 1933, Utrecht – 19 September 1981, Amsterdam) was a well-known Dutch feminist and politician in the 1970s.

Joke Smit grew up in a reformed family of six children in Vianen. Her father was a teacher. She attended the Christelijk Gymnasium Utrecht and later studied French language and literature at the University of Amsterdam. She taught French at a number of schools between 1955 and 1966. In 1962, she worked a year in Paris as a freelance journalist, writing articles for the Dutch newspapers NRC and Het Parool. She was then appointed editor and secretary of the editorial staff of the literary magazine Tirade. She started to work as an associate professor at the Institute for Translation of the University of Amsterdam in 1966. A year later, she became a member of the Partij van de Arbeid (Labor Party). She represented this party in the municipal government of Amsterdam from September 1970 until September 1971. Smit also became editor of the party’s scientific journal Socialisme & Democratie (Socialism & Democracy) in 1971. As a politician, she became affiliated with many committees, such as the Programmaraad TV (TV Program Council) for the NOS, the Committee Open School and the Emancipation Committee.

Smit married Constant Kool in 1956 and gave birth to two children. Her relationship with Kool ended in 1974. She had a relationship with Jeroen de Wildt from 1978 onwards. Smit died of breast cancer in September 1981 at the age of 48.

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