Alexandra Gripenberg

Alexandra Gripenberg

Baroness Alexandra Gripenberg , also Alexandra van Gripenberg , (born August 30, 1857 , Kurkijoki , Grand Duchy of Finland , today Lachdenpochja Rajon , Republic of Karelia ; † December 24, 1913 ) was a Finnish social activist, author, journalist, newspaper publisher and politician. Gripenberg was a leading voice in the women's rights movement in Finland around 1900.

Life

She was born as the second youngest of 17 children into the Finnish-Swedish noble family Gripenberg . Among her siblings were the writer Maria Furuhjelm , the women's rights activist Elisabeth Stenius-Aarneenkallio and the politicians Johannes Gripenberg and Sebastian Gripenberg . The father died early. The family moved to Kirkkonummi in 1866 and to Lappeenranta in 1878 . Gripenberg was religious and was close to the abstinence movement .

Literary career

After his mother's death, Gripenberg spent some time in Helsinki as the private secretary of Zacharias Topelius , who was also her literary mentor and who had encouraged her to produce her own ( Berättelser's short story collection , 1878, under the pseudonym Ringa). Further literary works followed with Strån (1884) and I ttnande led (1886), both still under the pseudonym Aarne, which Gripenberg later retained for her journalistic activities. In 1887/1888 she toured England and the United States to learn from the women's movements in these countries. The trip inspired the book "Half a year in the New World" (published in Swedish in 1889, Finnish in 1891).

Social engagement

1893 Gripenberg on took World Congress Representative women during the World's Columbian Exposition (World's Fair in Chicago ) part and learned Susan B. Anthony and know other leading feminists. In 1884 Gripenberg settled in Helsinki and co-founded the Suomen Naisyhdistys (Finnish Women's Association), the country's first women's rights organization. From 1889 to 1904 she was its chairman.

From 1893 to 1899 she was treasurer of the International Women's Council .

Party political activity

Through the mediation of her sister Elisabeth Stenius, she found contact with fennomaniac circles and began to write her first name as Aleksandra . Although she belonged to the Swedish-speaking aristocratic upper class of Finland, she joined the Finnish party , which wanted to make Finnish the official language and were open to women's rights. As a conservative feminist, she wanted gender equality, but not social class. Although she personally considered the introduction of women's suffrage to be premature, she finally agreed to run for the first parliamentary elections in 1907 . Grimberg moved into the national parliament along with nine other conservative women and nine social democrats. Cooperation with the fennophonic and rural-based conservative party was not without difficulties for Gripenberg, as it was not only with political opponents that it had to fight with reservations against the Swedish-speaking upper class. In addition, their parliamentary effectiveness was limited by a lack of rhetorical power in Finnish. 1909 - Gripenberg had been re-elected for a second term after the first dissolution of parliament by the Tsar - she resigned from her mandate for health reasons.

literature

• Tyyni Tuulio: Aleksandra Gripenberg: Kirjailija, taistelija, himinen . WSOY, Porvoo 1959. (biography)
• Riita Jallinoja: The Women's Liberation Movement in Finland in: Journal of Scandinavian History 5 (1980): 36-49.
• Aura Korppi-Tommola: Fighting Together for Freedom: Nationalism, Socialism, Feminism, and Women's Suffrage in Finland 1906 in: Journal of Scandinavian History 15 (1990): 181-91.
• Anna Moring, ed .: Politics of Gender: A Century of Women's Suffrage in Finland . Helsinki: Otava, 2006.
• Helen Rappaport: Alexandra van Gripenberg in: Encyclopedia of Women Social Reformers , edited by Helen Rappaport. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2001, 723-724.
• Irma Sulkunen, Maria Lähteenmäki, Aura Korppi-Tommola: Naiset eduskunnassa . Edita / Suomen eduskunta, Helsinki 2006. ISBN 978-951-37-4544-8

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tiffany K. Wayne: Feminist writings from ancient times to the modern world a global sourcebook and history . Greenwood, Santa Barbara, ISBN 0313345813 , pp. 384-385.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 179.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 178.
4. ↑ Sulkunen, Lähteenmäki & Tommola 2006, p. 218
5. ↑ Information for Members of the Finnish Parliament [1]  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.