Marthe Boël born Marthe de Kerchove de Denterghem (Ghent

Ghent

Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...

, 3 July 1877-18 January 1956) was a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 feminist. She was the third daughter of the liberal

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

 senator

Belgian Senate

The Belgian Senate is one of the two chambers of the bicameral Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Chamber of Representatives. It is considered to be the "upper house" of the Federal Parliament.-History and future:...

 Count Oswald de Kerchove de Denterghem

Oswald de Kerchove de Denterghem

Oswald Charles Eugène Marie Ghislain de Kerchove de Denterghem , was a Belgian liberal politician. Oswald de Kerchove was a son of the Ghentian mayor Charles de Kerchove de Denterghem....

 and Maria Lippens, daughter of August Lippens.

Biography

She studied in Ghent

Ghent

Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...

 and Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, where she obtained the brevet supérieur in 1895. In 1898, she married Pol Boël

Pol Clovis Boël

Pol-Clovis, Baron Boël was a Belgian industrialist, Director of the Usines Gustave Boël in La Louvière, and liberal politician....

, director of the Usines Gustave Boël in La Louvière

La Louvière

La Louvière is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. La Louvière's municipality includes the old communes of Haine-Saint-Paul, Haine-Saint-Pierre, Saint-Vaast, Trivières, Boussoit, Houdeng-Aimeries, Houdeng-Gœgnies, Maurage, and Strépy-Bracquegnies...

. She engaged in several charities and founded the Cercle des Dames Libérales. Through her father she came into contact with the Belgian feminist movement

Feminist movement

The feminist movement refers to a series of campaigns for reforms on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women's suffrage, sexual harassment and sexual violence...

 and where she met Hélène Goblet d’Alviella and Jane Brigode

Jane Brigode

Jane Brittle was a Belgian liberal and politician. From 1940 until 1945 she was co-president of the Liberal Party...

. When World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 broke out she started working as a nurse and joined the Union patriotique des femmes belges led by Jane Brigode. She joined the resistance and was arrested, together with her husband, in October 1916 and after a trial in Charleroi

Charleroi

Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as...

 imprisoned in Siegburg

Siegburg

--122.148.78.228 05:06, 14 November 2011 Siegburg is a city in the district of Rhein-Sieg-Kreis, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany...

. Her health deteriorated during her stay in prison and in 1917 she was exchanged for Frau von Schnee, the wife of the governor of German East Africa

German East Africa

German East Africa was a German colony in East Africa, which included what are now :Burundi, :Rwanda and Tanganyika . Its area was , nearly three times the size of Germany today....

. The remainder of the war she lived in exile in Gstaad

Gstaad

Gstaad is a village in the German-speaking section of the Canton of Berne in southwestern Switzerland. Part of the municipality of Saanen, Gstaad is known as one of the most exclusive ski resorts in the world....

 (Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

).

As a war hero, she was one of few women who were allowed to vote in Belgium in national elections after the war. Jane Brigode introduced her to the Liberal Party

Liberal Party (Belgium)

The Liberal Party was a Belgian political party that existed from 1846 until 1961, when it became the Party for Freedom and Progress, Partij voor Vrijheid en Vooruitgang/Parti de la Liberté et du Progrès or PVV-PLP, under the leadership of Omer Vanaudenhove.-History:The Liberal Party was founded...

, where in 1919 she became a member of the Commission on Women problems under Paul-Emile Janson

Paul-Emile Janson

Paul-Emile Janson was a Belgian liberal politician.Born in Brussels, Janson was the son of liberal statesman Paul Janson . He studied law at the Free University of Brussels , practised as a lawyer, and also taught at the university...

. Disappointed by the reluctance of the political parties to grant women the right to vote, she organized in 1920 the first Women Conference together with Jane Brigode. In 1921, she and Jane Brigode founded the Union des femmes liberales de l’arrondissement de Bruxelles and in 1923 they founded, together with Alice De Keyser-Buysse the National Federation of Liberal Women, of which she became the first President. She resigned however in 1936 as she wanted to broaden her horizon and work over the boundaries of political parties.

In 1921 she had become a member of the National Council of Women (Conseil National des Femmes Belges - CNFB) which had been founded by Marie Popelin

Marie Popelin

Marie Popelin was a Belgian feminist, educator, and advocate.Born in Schaerbeek into a middle-class family—one of her brothers was a doctor, another an army officer—Marie Popelin was well educated by the standards of the time and place...

 in 1904 and in 1935 she succeeded Marguerite Van de Wiele as its President. In 1936, at the conference of Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...

, she was elected President of the International Council of Women

International Council of Women

The International Council of Women was the first women's organization to work across national boundaries for the common cause of advocating human rights for women. In March and April 1888, women leaders came together in Washington D.C...

. As a member of the Union belge pour la Société des Nations, she had contacts with Paul Hymans

Paul Hymans

Paul Louis Adrien Henri Hymans , was a Belgian politician associated with the Liberal Party. He was the first President of the League of Nations, and served again as its president in 1932-33....

, Pierre Orts and Jules Destrée

Jules Destrée

Jules Destrée was a Walloon lawyer, cultural critic and socialist politician. The trials subsequent to the strikes of 1886 determined his commitment within the Belgian Labour Party. He wrote a Letter to the King in 1912, which is seen as the founding declaration of the Walloon movement...

. She was appointed by the League of Nations

League of Nations

The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

 as President of the commission for the emancipation

Emancipation

Emancipation means the act of setting an individual or social group free or making equal to citizens in a political society.Emancipation may also refer to:* Emancipation , a champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1979...

 of women and the international political role of women.

At the outbreak on World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, she retreated at her estate in Chenoy near Brussels where her husband died in 1941. When the Université Libre de Bruxelles

Université Libre de Bruxelles

The Université libre de Bruxelles is a French-speaking university in Brussels, Belgium. It has 21,000 students, 29% of whom come from abroad, and an equally cosmopolitan staff.-Name:...

 had to close its doors by the Nazis, she provided space at her estate and a meeting place. After the war, in 1947, she resigned as President of the International Council of Women. In 1952 she spoke for the last time at a conference of the council at the Acropolis

Acropolis

Acropolis means "high city" in Greek, literally city on the extremity and is usually translated into English as Citadel . For purposes of defense, early people naturally chose elevated ground to build a new settlement, frequently a hill with precipitous sides...

 from the Parthenon

Parthenon

The Parthenon is a temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their virgin patron. Its construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the height of its power. It was completed in 438 BC, although...

, the temple of Pallas Athena.

She was honored at several occasions for her work, she died on 18 January 1956.

Source

• Duchène, C., in : Biographie Nationale, Brussel, Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux Arts, 1866–1986, XXXIV, 1968, kol. 87-93.
• B. D'hondt, Gelijke rechten, gelijke plichten. Een portret van vijf liberale vrouwen, Liberaal archief
• Le Flambeau, jg. 39, 1956, nr. 2, Huldenummer Marthe de Kerchove de Denterghem baronne Boël.