Gina Krog

Gina Krog (1880s)

Gina Krog , Jørgine Anna Sverdrup Krog, (born June 20, 1847 in Flakstad , † April 14, 1916 in Kristiania ) was a Norwegian suffragette.

Life

Her parents were the pastor Jørgen Sverdrup Krog (1805–1847) and his wife Ingeborg Anna Dass Brinchmann (1814–1872). Gina Krog was born a few months after her father's death. The mother then moved to live with her late husband's family on Karmøy . When she was eight years old, the two moved to Christiania. There she went to the "Frau Autenrieths Girls School". Gina herself began teaching in private girls' schools at an early age, but had no corresponding training. At the same time she began extensive self-study, especially in languages ​​and literature. In 1882 she helped her friend Cecilie Thoresen , who wanted to be the first woman in Norway to take the artium exam. Cecilie Thoresen studied and later married Gina's brother, the lawyer Fredrik Krog. He supported Gina financially when she gave up teaching and went into politics, her "fighting time". Gina Krog remained unmarried. She died in the flu epidemic in 1916. She was buried with great sympathy from the highest political representatives in the government.

Commitment to women's rights

The fighting season began in 1880 when she first traveled to Britain. There she came into contact with the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and also stayed at Bedford College . She started writing articles for Norwegian newspapers.

She stood in the radical wing of the American and British women's movement and called for full equality between men and women. This was in contrast to the moderate wing, which placed greater emphasis on improving the economic conditions of women. She was completely uncompromising in her demand for equality.

Foundation of women's associations

Norsk Kvinnesaksforening (Norwegian Women's Rights Association) (NKF)

On June 28, 1884, the " Norsk Kvinnesaksforening " (Norwegian Women's Rights Association) (NKF) was founded. Hagbard Berner became the first chairman . Gina Krog received the highest number of votes from the board members, but Berner took over the direction of the meeting and submitted a draft statute that stipulated that the association would not advocate women's suffrage. In the same year Gina Krog wrote a long article, “Nogle Ord om Kvindesagens Udvikling og nærmeste Opgaver i vor Land” (A few words about the development of women's affairs and the next tasks in our country), in which she urged women, even them To take over management of the association. Berner resigned the NKF chairmanship after a year in protest against the fact that Krog had succeeded in giving a lecture on November 27, 1885, “Stemmeret for Kvinder” (voting rights for women). The meeting was public. Gina Krog became chairwoman of the NKF.

Kvinnestemmerettsforeningen (Association for Women's Suffrage) (KSF)

Tomb for Gina Krog in Vår Frelsers gravlund, Oslo

In 1884, following hotly contested parliamentary deliberations, a constitutional amendment introduced universal suffrage for men. In response to this, Gina Krog founded the Kvinnestemmerettsforeningen (Association for Women's Suffrage ) (KSF) with ten women in 1885 ; she had meanwhile read the History of Woman Suffrage , a copy of which Susan B. Anthony had sent to Christiania University. Men were excluded from membership here. The group was small. She followed Gina Krogs with regard to the scope of women's suffrage rather conservative line and only advocated women's suffrage at the local level.

The KSF association split when an opposition led by Anna Rogstad deviated from Gina Krog's consistent line and, with a majority of its members, submitted a moderate compromise proposal to the Storting. After twelve years, Gina Krog was voted out of office as chairwoman of KSF because she did not want to represent the compromise line that she considered opportunistic. The KSF she founded did not survive. Its existence was symptomatic of the rise of a politically interested and active elite whom Henrik Ibsen had described as lawyers and shipowners who benefited from the expansion of the Norwegian merchant fleet to become the third largest in the world.

The divergent development of the dying KSF and the NKF, which became more and more influential, shows the little importance of women's suffrage in Norway compared to other issues, namely the place of women in marriage and in the economic sphere and Norwegian nationalism.

Landskvinnestemmerettsforeningen (National Association for Women's Suffrage) (LKSF) and Norske Kvinners Nasjonalråd

In 1904 Grog founded the "Landskvinnestemmerettsforeningen" (State Association for Women's Suffrage) (LKSF). This regional association was incorporated into the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, IWSA (German World Federation for Women's Suffrage ), which was founded in Berlin in the same year . In the same year, at Gina Krog's instigation, the Norske Kvinners Nasjonalråd was founded, which joined the International Women's Council . Gina Krog remained its chairman until her death. This National Council was an umbrella organization without its own objective and comprised a number of organizations with different objectives, including abstainers, moral and missionary associations and housewives' associations. Krog hoped that this would help overcome the split on the voting rights issue and achieve international cooperation. Under her leadership, the umbrella organization became the hearing body in the legislative process in all matters affecting women.

Commitment to women's suffrage

The suffragette remained true to her conservative line and advocated property-based suffrage even after 1898. However, Gina Krog's demand was one of the foundations of the entire development, which later led to an application to the Storting for recognition not only of a communal, but also general political right to vote. Viggo Ullmann , Venstre MP in Storting, promised to bring in the proposed amendment to the Basic Law for municipal women's suffrage in the next Storting. With that, Gina Krog had achieved her first goal: women's suffrage had come on the political agenda.

Journalistic and political activities

Gina founded the newspaper Nylænde in 1887 as a mouthpiece for the women's rights movement and was the editor until her death. She also advocated the right of married women to private property and in 1901 supported Johan Castberg's radical “child laws”, which were supposed to achieve better conditions for unmarried mothers and a higher child allowance. This law was only passed in 1915.

Honors

In 1907, when the Norwegian government was asked to nominate an official representative for the next "World congress for woman's rights" in 1908 in Amsterdam, she sent Gina Krog. At the next congress in Budapest in 1913, she also took part as a delegate from the government, together with Fredrikke Qvam . In the meantime, women's suffrage had been incorporated into the Norwegian constitution, and the two women were honored as representatives of the first sovereign state to include universal suffrage in the constitution.

Norsk kvinnesaksforening (NKF) founded a Gina Krog Prize in 2009, which is to be awarded every two years to Norwegian women who, in the spirit of Gina Krog, have made an important contribution to the feminist movement and to the goals of the NKF.

Remarks

The article is based on the Norsk biografisk leksikon . Other information is shown separately.

1. ↑ The "Examen artium" was the regular entrance examination for university, which required knowledge of Latin and Greek. So it corresponded to the Abitur, but was accepted by the university until 1883, then by the school.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 183.
3. ↑ Sybil Oldfield (Ed.): International Women Suffrage. Ius suffragii. Vol. 1: July 1913-October 1914. London 2003, p. 2, ISBN 0-415-25737-9 .
4. ^ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 184.
5. ↑ Article “Nylænde” in: Store norske leksikon , accessed on April 21, 2010.
6. ↑ Ingrid J. Brussbach: "Gina frontet kvinnesaken." In: Adressa.no .
7. ↑ Report on the awarding of the Gina Krog Prize 2012.

literature

• Aslaug Moksnes: Article “Gina Krog” in: Norsk biografisk leksikon , accessed on April 21, 2010.

Web links

Commons : Gina Krog  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files