Margaretha Meijboom

Margaretha Anna Sophia Meijboom or Meyboom (29 July 1856 - 26 September 1927) was a social worker, feminist and translator of Scandinavian literature into Dutch.

She resisted the idea that a woman's role in society was in the home, and founded several cooperative organisations to further women's economic independence.

Her mother was Anjes H. F. Tydeman; her father, Louis Suson Pedro Meijboom, was a liberal minister of the Dutch Reformed Church.

Together with Claudine Bienfait, another translator of Scandinavian languages, she made sure that the library included beside publications on social issues as well as literature.

In 1901, a textile factory in The Hague was converted into a cooperative corporation, where all female workers earned a fixed salary, a share in the profit and a pension.

De Wekker produced and sold arts and crafts objects, small pieces of furniture and mainly reform clothing, loosely fitting dresses that replaced the corset.

She was initiator of the Broederschapsfederatie (1918), a collaborative project for theosophists, spiritualists, Esperantists, teetotalers, vegetarians and adherents of the Rein Leven [nl] (Pure Life) movement.

The Broederschapsfederatie and the Coöperatieve Vrouwenbond placed an oaken monument on her grave with the inscription: "Her mind was the key that unlocked old hearts to new world ideas.