Viking Magazine - June 2013 - 22
Why was Norway the First
Independent Nation to Give
Women the Vote?
BY ALYSSA FORD
n the early summer of
1913, a group of Norwegian
delegates finally
arrived in Budapest for the
International Women's
Suffrage Alliance. Pioneering
suffrage activist Gina
Krog met the weary travelers
with a bit of triumphant
news from home. Just a few
days before, the Norwegian
parliament had explicitly
defined women as citizens of
Norway, and granted them
unrestricted voting rights.
Krog stood before her
fellow activists and reminded
them how long they
worked for the brass ring
of suffrage. " How far away
was the goal, and how steep
the road, and what difficulties
towered over us, " she
said. " And now! Faith has
moved mountains. "
I
They knew their achievement
wasn't just about
Norway, but a precedent for
the whole world. For the
first time ever, an independent
nation had unequivocally
opened its ballot box
to women. (While Finland
and New Zealand had given
women the vote before 1913,
as subservient territories of
Russia and Britain, the vote
offered much less political
power for Finns and New
Zealanders of both genders.)
With its landmark vote
in parliament, Norway put
itself on the cutting edge of
22 JUNE 2013
sonsofnorway.com
women's rights. Danish
women wouldn't get the vote
for another two years. American
women wouldn't vote for
another seven. British women
wouldn't see the inside of a
polling place for a full decade
and a half.
So why was Norway the
first?
Industrialization: Up to
a quarter of the Norwegian
population was still working
in agriculture, forestry and
fishing as late as the 1880s,
writes women's history expert
Ida Blom in her essay " A
Double Responsibility: Men,
Women and Socialism in Norway. "
Europe was industrializing
and urbanizing very fast.
These social shifts opened up
new economic opportunities
to women, and also fomented
a societal crisis that allowed
men's and women's roles to
eventually change. Also, a
large population of unmarried
women in urban centers created
an incubator for feminist
ideas. Many of these young
working women had the free
time to organize, as they were
not yet constrained by the duties
of motherhood and home.
Poetic Realism: The climate
of debate around industrialization
proved inspiring to
many artists, and led to the
rapid-fire growth of a literary
movement called Poetisk
http://www.sonsofnorway.com
Viking Magazine - June 2013
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Viking Magazine - June 2013
Contents
Viking Magazine - June 2013 - Cover1
Viking Magazine - June 2013 - Cover2
Viking Magazine - June 2013 - Contents
Viking Magazine - June 2013 - 4
Viking Magazine - June 2013 - 5
Viking Magazine - June 2013 - 6
Viking Magazine - June 2013 - 7
Viking Magazine - June 2013 - 8
Viking Magazine - June 2013 - 9
Viking Magazine - June 2013 - 10
Viking Magazine - June 2013 - 11
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Viking Magazine - June 2013 - 46
Viking Magazine - June 2013 - Cover3
Viking Magazine - June 2013 - Cover4
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