Background
She was the daughter of the theologian Synco Hoitsema (1799–1860) and Rika van Bolhuis (1808–1895) and married the doctor Johannes Rutgers (1850–1924) in 1885.
She was the daughter of the theologian Synco Hoitsema (1799–1860) and Rika van Bolhuis (1808–1895) and married the doctor Johannes Rutgers (1850–1924) in 1885.
Mietje Hoitsema became chairperson of the local Rotterdam branch of the Dutch women suffrage union in 1894. She founded an association to support the rights of women, children and working families (1895) and an association for the support of unmarried mothers (1898) and an association for the rights of professional women (1903). She was injured in a car accident in 1913 and withdrew from public life in 1918.
She was also a member of the Malthusian League, which fought for the rights for sex education and birth control.