In February 1898, she became a member of the Dutch Medical Examination Board and shortly afterward was appointed professor of gynecology at Utrecht University.

She pressed for reform of abortion laws and campaigned against needless surgical sterilization of women, claiming that the only beneficiaries were husbands.

[7] She believed that the lack of opportunity available to women and a life with the sole goal of marriage was detrimental to health, calling instead for physical activity and vocational training.

But of one thing I am certain: we women embody the ideal whether we bear the broom, wield the scalpel or stand at the helm of the state."

Van Tussenbroek enjoyed research; had the needs of women been less urgent, she would have preferred to continue undertaking microscopic studies rather than gynecology.

[10] In 1899, she "demonstrated beyond question" the first accurate clinical and histological description of the existence of the rare condition of ovarian pregnancy.

[18] Politically active, van Tussenbroek was a member of the Society for Women's Suffrage[2] and wore a velvet strap pin of the portrait of the American suffragette Carrie Chapman Catt.