Christina Elizabeth (Betsy) Perk (Delft, March 26, 1833 - Nijmegen, March 30, 1906), was a Dutch author of novels and plays, and a pioneer of the Dutch women's movement, who wrote under the pen names Philemon, Liesbeth van Altena, and Spirito. She is known as the founding member of the Algemeene Nederlandsche Vrouwenvereeniging Arbeid Adelt ("General Dutch Women's Association 'Labor Ennobles'") in 1871, the women's magazine Onze Roeping, and the weekly magazine for women Ons Streven in 1869, the latter publication being the country's first women's periodical. In later years, her influence and activism diminished due to poor health, and she mainly focused on writing historical novels. From 1880 to 1890, she lived in Belgium. She is buried at the cemetery Rustoord in Nijmegen. Early years and education Perk grew up in a fairly wealthy and large family; her parents were Adrianus Perk and Lessina Elizabeth Visser. Her father, a merchant, married three times and she was the third daughter of the second marriage. As a result, Perk had three brothers, three half-sisters and five half-brothers. She lived with her step-mother Theodora Veeren until 1876. One of her brothers was the father of the poet Jacques Perk. Career From an early age she was interested in writing: she published some stories at age 19, and her first novel, Een kruis met rozen, was published in 1864. Her father had been wealthy enough to send his sons for an academic education, but not his daughters, and in the 1860s her life was turned upside down: her fiancee broke off their engagement in 1866, and the next year her father died. Perk began publishing feminist articles, arguing that men and women should be valued equally, even if they had biological differences. She started Ons Streven ("Our Striving") in 1870, the country's first women's periodical, but left the magazine after the first edition since the publisher had placed two male editors on equal footing with her, and she feared the magazine would publish anti-emancipatory articles. In response she founded another magazine, Onze Roeping ("Our Calling"), in which she suggested, among other things, that the work of unmarried and married women would promote the country's wellbeing. In 1871, she established Arbeid Adelt, a women's association, for which Onze Roeping was the official journal, but quickly had a dispute with fellow associates: the organization sold poor women's needlework at bazaars, and unlike her colleagues Perk