Women won their rights by networking across borders. Here from a Nordic woman’s congress in the old university assembly hall in Oslo, 1902. Photo: Worm-Petersen. National Library of Norway
Suffrage Association) that was the main driv-
ing force. It was founded by Gina Krog and
Fredrikke Marie Qvam, among others, in 1898.
In 1900, a chapter was started in Tromsø. At the
first open meeting, the group gained 99 mem-
bers. After the decision for limited municipal
suffrage was made on 11 May 1901, 90 mem-
bers met for an impromptu celebration, Kari
Nerdrum Tangen wrote in her 1977 master’s
thesis on the history of women’s suffrage in
Tromsø.
“The commitment in the north was very
strong. Nationally, less than 50 per cent of
women in urban areas and 10 per cent in
rural areas used their municipal voting rights
in 1901. In light of this, it’s fantastic to think
that in Vardø, 75 per cent of women voted. In
addition, Anna Sophie Gundersen and Nikoline
Larsen, both representing the Liberal Party
(
Venstre
), were voted onto the city council,”
tells Randi Rønning Balsvik, a history professor
and another conference participant.
Foremost in the fight for women’s suffrage in
Tromsø was Thora Halvorsen, who was elected
to the city council in 1904 as a representative
for the Conservative Party (
Høyre
). Like other
women’s rights activists in Tromsø and nation-
ally, she was from the middle class. So when the
Labour Party (
Arbeiderpartiet
) announced that
Jenny Garfjeld, a long-standing member of the
LKSF and editorial secretary and de facto edi-
tor of the local newspaper, Nordlys, would be
their national candidate, there was dissention
in the suffrage association, and a concern that
the group would split. Garfjeld was not elected.
“There was a deep divide between the mid-
dle and working classes that was evident even
in the fight for women’s suffrage. There were
no overarching loyalties among women when
it came to how they voted. But it was clear that
women were motivated by many of the same
causes. The organised women’s rights move-
ments originated in networks that women built
to tackle other common interests. We see this
in the US, the UK and here in Norway. In the
1800s, the fight against slavery was foremost
among issues that motivated women, and later
the temperance movement – this is especially
evident in fishing villages along the southern
coast,” says Balsvik.
An international fight
In conjunction with the centennial of female
suffrage, Professor Balsvik has travelled around
Norway to give presentations about the fight
for women’s suffrage, with a focus on how
the struggle in Norway was a part of an inter
national fight.
“Our history is so often portrayed from a
national perspective. But the ideas, organisation
and the struggle itself took place throughout a
strong network that was formed in Scandinavia,
Western Europe and the United States,” Balsvik
explains.
“The ground-breaking efforts made by suf-
fragettes in the UK, who used sexuality and all of
the associated Victorian taboos to bring atten-
tion to the cause, were picked up by women
like Katti Anker Møller at home in Norway. It
took lots of courage to address questions about
abuse of the female body, childbirth and syphi-
lis. Without the fight for women’s suffrage, the
issues that in the 1920s resulted in expanded
social welfare and the ‘Castbergian child laws’
(so-named after MP Johan Castberg), which
established legal rights and care for children
born out of wedlock, may never have gotten on
the agenda,” she adds.
Still underrepresented
Is there still evidence of the suffrage efforts from
100 years ago today? Election researcher and
political scientist Marcus Buck says yes.
He explains that northern Norwegian social
scientist Stein Rokkan described four
thresholds
or
barriers
to the participation of underrepre-
sented groups in the political system: legiti-
misation – that women were allowed to speak
in political assemblies;
incorporation
– that
women were allowed to vote;
representation
10
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