Anna Rogstad (1854–1938) was the first female Member of Parliament in Norway. This picture was taken in
1911. Photo: National Library of Norway.
– that women could be elected to Parliament;
and finally
executive power
– that women made
their way into the government and were even-
tually elected as prime minister.
“When we look at these barriers and how
women have broken through them compared
to men, there’s a clear correlation between the
fight for women’s suffrage and the underrep-
resentation of women in positions of power
today. The question is if this is simply a lag, and
that women in the future will be represented on
an equal footing as men, or if we’ve hit a sort of
social glass ceiling, meaning that women never
will have complete equality in politics,” says
Buck.
Women and men have switched places
There’s hardly any difference between men and
women in voter turnout, but fewer women are
elected to Parliament, municipal boards and
county councils, even though many parties
require that candidates be equally distributed
between sexes.
“One reason for this may be that women
are concerned with different issues than men.
While male voters and politicians tend to be
more concerned with economic, foreign policy
and defence issues, their female counterparts
tend to be more interested in issues related to
children and health,” says Buck. “Women aren’t
generally less interested in politics than men,
but male and female politicians tend to have
different priorities based on their standing in
society.”
Buck says the best example of this is how
women and men have changed positions in the
political spectrum after the Second World War.
While women previously tended to vote to the
centre or right on the political spectrum, with
men voting more liberally, this trend switched
after women entered the workforce. “An exam-
ple of this is the voters of the Socialist Left Party’s
(
Sosialistisk Venstreparti
), who were previously
primarily working class men, but who are now
mainly well-educated women employed in the
public sector,” he says.
11
labyrint
•
research magazine
from
u
i
t
the
arctic
university
of
norway
Women’s suffrage in Norway:
•
1901:
Both men and married women over
25 had municipal suffrage by rights of cen-
sus, meaning that a woman or her spouse
had to have a certain annual income to be
able to vote: 400 kroner in urban areas,
300 kroner in rural areas.
•
1901:
Anna Sophie Gundersen and Nikoline
Larsen, both members of the Liberal Party
(
Venstre
), were elected as the first female
city council members in Vardø.
•
1904:
Thora Halvorsen of the Conservative
Party (
Høyre
) was elected as the first female
city council member in Tromsø.
•
1905:
A referendum on dissolution of
the union with Sweden. Women were
not allowed to take part, but turned in a
petition with almost 300,000 signatures
of those who agreed to the dissolution
(by comparison, 370,000 men voted yes).
Prime Minister Jørgen Løvland stated:
“The attitude of Norwegian women in the
cities and rural areas is a great chapter in
Norway’s history, and will be a great help
to them in gaining the rights they deserve.”
•
1907:
Women gain national suffrage on
the same terms as the 1901 municipal
suffrage.
•
1910:
Universal municipal suffrage for
women over 25 years of age.
•
1911:
Anna Rogstad of the Liberal Left
Party (
Frisinnede Venstre
) was elected as
the first female Member of Parliament (she
had previously been elected as a deputy
in 1909).
•
1913:
Universal female suffrage for women
over 25 years of age.
Source: stemmerettsjubileet.no, www.
rhd.uit.no, Kari N. Tangen, Tromsø led av
L.K.S.F. medlemmenes arbeid for å oppnå
stemmerett for kvinner i årene 1900–1913.
Hovedoppgave i historie. UiT 1977.
Katti Anker Møller (1868–1945) was one of the first
brave women in Norway to bring up taboo ques-
tions about the female body and sexuality. Photo:
National Library of Norway.
