Jacoba van den Brande: Pioneer of Women’s Education

Gabrielle Birchak/ May 9, 2025/ Late Modern History, Modern History

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It’s Flash­card Fri­day here at Math, Sci­ence, His­to­ry, when on Fri­days we post a short lit­tle flash card about some­thing mathy, sci­en­cy, or his­to­ry. I’m your host, Gabrielle Bir­chak, and I’m shar­ing a sto­ry about the life of a remark­able woman who made a pro­found, yet often over­looked, con­tri­bu­tion to math­e­mat­ics and edu­ca­tion: Jaco­ba van den Brande. Though her sto­ry is not wide­ly known today, Jaco­ba was a trail­blaz­er, not just in math­e­mat­ics, but in the fight for women’s edu­ca­tion in the 17th cen­tu­ry. She was one of the first to pro­pose and active­ly pur­sue the cre­ation of an all-female acad­e­my for study­ing sub­jects like math­e­mat­ics, phi­los­o­phy, and the sci­ences. Let’s look at her life and lega­cy and see how her actions still res­onate today.

Jaco­ba van den Brande was born in the ear­ly 1600s in the Nether­lands, when women were often exclud­ed from aca­d­e­m­ic life. The sev­en­teenth cen­tu­ry was a time of intel­lec­tu­al flour­ish­ing in Europe, but these advance­ments were con­fined to men. Despite these restric­tions, Jaco­ba defied soci­etal expec­ta­tions in mul­ti­ple ways. She was not only a math­e­mati­cian but also an enthu­si­as­tic advo­cate for women’s access to education.

Her most sig­nif­i­cant ambi­tion was to cre­ate a space where women could be edu­cat­ed the same way as men, espe­cial­ly in sub­jects like math­e­mat­ics and the nat­ur­al sci­ences. She believed that women were just as capa­ble of intel­lec­tu­al pur­suits as men but were sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly denied the oppor­tu­ni­ties to prove it.

Jacoba’s vision wasn’t just about women learn­ing to read and write—she want­ed them to study advanced math­e­mat­ics, phi­los­o­phy, and the sci­ences, dis­ci­plines tra­di­tion­al­ly reserved for male schol­ars at the time. She didn’t want an infor­mal study group or a pri­vate club; Jaco­ba envi­sioned a for­mal acad­e­my where women could be taught by experts, work col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly, and pur­sue rig­or­ous intel­lec­tu­al inquiry.

To under­stand just how rev­o­lu­tion­ary Jacoba’s idea was, we need to con­sid­er the aca­d­e­m­ic envi­ron­ment in the Nether­lands dur­ing her time. The ear­ly 17th cen­tu­ry saw the rise of some of Europe’s most influ­en­tial uni­ver­si­ties and intel­lec­tu­al cir­cles. How­ev­er, these insti­tu­tions were over­whelm­ing­ly male-dom­i­nat­ed, with women being exclud­ed from aca­d­e­m­ic life. The idea that a woman could learn and teach com­plex sub­jects was a rad­i­cal notion.

Jacoba’s efforts to cre­ate an all-female acad­e­my were not mere­ly the­o­ret­i­cal. She took prac­ti­cal steps to turn her dream into a real­i­ty. In a let­ter to the Dutch math­e­mati­cian Simon Stevin—one of the most well-known fig­ures in math­e­mat­ics dur­ing that time—Jacoba argued pas­sion­ate­ly for estab­lish­ing such an acad­e­my. She used her math­e­mat­i­cal rea­son­ing skills to advo­cate for women’s intel­lec­tu­al capa­bil­i­ties, pre­sent­ing a com­pelling case that there was no rea­son women could not excel in fields like math­e­mat­ics and the sciences.

In her let­ter, Jaco­ba demon­strat­ed her own deep knowl­edge of math­e­mat­ics, which was rare for women at that time. She had stud­ied alge­bra, geom­e­try, and oth­er math­e­mat­i­cal dis­ci­plines and was well-versed in the work of lead­ing schol­ars of her time. The fact that she could engage in these intel­lec­tu­al con­ver­sa­tions on equal terms with male math­e­mati­cians was ground­break­ing. In many ways, her aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ments were just as rad­i­cal as her call for an all-female acad­e­my.

But Jacoba’s efforts were not with­out resis­tance. The con­cept of women engag­ing in advanced stud­ies, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the fields of math­e­mat­ics and sci­ence, was met with skep­ti­cism by many of her con­tem­po­raries. Soci­ety, at the time, believed that women’s pri­ma­ry roles should be in the domes­tic sphere, man­ag­ing house­holds and car­ing for fam­i­lies. Intel­lec­tu­al pur­suits were con­sid­ered man’s domain.

Despite these chal­lenges, Jacoba’s per­sis­tence was remark­able. She con­tin­ued to push for women’s edu­ca­tion and was deter­mined to break down the bar­ri­ers that exclud­ed women from intel­lec­tu­al life. Her vision was not just about wom­en’s aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ments; it was about cre­at­ing a shift in soci­etal atti­tudes toward women’s intel­lec­tu­al capabilities.

One of the key themes in Jacoba’s work was the idea of intel­lec­tu­al col­lab­o­ra­tion. She wasn’t advo­cat­ing for women to study alone, in iso­la­tion, but to learn togeth­er, exchange ideas, and sup­port each oth­er. This was one of the core prin­ci­ples of her envi­sioned academy—community and col­lab­o­ra­tion among women in intel­lec­tu­al pur­suits. She believed that this col­lab­o­ra­tive envi­ron­ment would fos­ter cre­ativ­i­ty and inno­va­tion, as women would learn from their teach­ers and each other.

Though Jaco­ba nev­er saw her acad­e­my come to fruition, her ideas con­tin­ued to res­onate for gen­er­a­tions. Her belief in the pow­er of edu­ca­tion for women, par­tic­u­lar­ly in math­e­mat­ics and sci­ence, laid the ground­work for future move­ments. Women like Maria Gae­tana Agne­si and Émi­lie du Châtelet, math­e­mati­cians from lat­er cen­turies, could be seen as the heirs of Jacoba’s intel­lec­tu­al legacy.

But what can we learn from Jaco­ba van den Brande today? Well, her life and work serve as an inspir­ing reminder of the impor­tance of fight­ing for equal oppor­tu­ni­ties in edu­ca­tion, regard­less of gen­der. Even today, women in fields like math­e­mat­ics, engi­neer­ing, and sci­ence often face chal­lenges in gain­ing recog­ni­tion and access to resources. Jacoba’s deter­mi­na­tion and vision remind us that the fight for equal­i­ty in edu­ca­tion is far from over, and her exam­ple encour­ages us to keep push­ing for a world where any­one, regard­less of gen­der, can access the edu­ca­tion they deserve.

Her sto­ry also under­scores the impor­tance of col­lab­o­ra­tion and com­mu­ni­ty in intel­lec­tu­al pur­suits. In many ways, Jacoba’s call for an all-female acad­e­my can be seen as a call for more inclu­sive spaces in acad­e­mia today—places where mar­gin­al­ized voic­es, includ­ing those of women, can come togeth­er to learn, share, and grow.

Jaco­ba van den Brande may not have lived to see the changes she hoped for, but her ideas were far ahead of their time. Her work reminds us that the pur­suit of knowl­edge is not bound by gen­der, and that the world is made rich­er when we open doors to edu­ca­tion for every­one, regard­less of back­ground. Sup­pose Jacoba’s vision had come to fruition. In that case, it might have helped pave the way for gen­er­a­tions of women math­e­mati­cians, sci­en­tists, and philosophers—and, it still could. Who knows how many bril­liant minds remain untapped sim­ply because soci­ety has yet to ful­ly embrace the idea that women can excel in all fields?

Thanks for tun­ing in to this episode of Math! Sci­ence! His­to­ry! I hope you enjoyed learn­ing about Jaco­ba van den Brande and her ground­break­ing work advo­cat­ing for women’s edu­ca­tion. If you want to dive deep­er into the sto­ries of oth­er trail­blaz­ers in his­to­ry, sub­scribe and catch our next episode. And, as always, don’t for­get to share this episode with friends who love his­to­ry, sci­ence, and the sto­ries of unsung heroes.

Until next time, carpe diem!