Alexandra Gripenberg
Alexandra Gripenberg, also known as Alexandra van Grippenberg, (30 August 1857, Kurkijoki, Finland - 24 December 1913) was a Finnish social activist, author, editor, newspaper publisher, and elected politician, and was a leading voice within the movement for women's rights in Finland at the turn of the 20th century.[1] She was also known as a Fennoman.
She founded the first official women's rights organization in Finland, the Suomen Naisyhdistys (Finnish Women's Association), in Helsinki in 1884. Between 1887– 1888, she traveled in England and the United States, to study lessons from the women's movements of those countries. The tour inspired her book A Half Year in the New World (1889). She served as the treasurer of the International Council of Women from 1893–1899.
When Finland granted women's suffrage in 1906 Gripenberg was one of the ten female conservatives elected, along with nine other women belonging to the Social Democratic Party, making her one of the first women to get elected into the Parliament of Finland. She was elected through the conservative Finnish Party, which proved somewhat difficult for her at times as she was Swedish-speaking and the party was Finnish-speaking with strong grass roots support in the Finnish countryside.
Notes
- ^ Wayne, Tiffany K. Feminist writings from ancient times to the modern world a global sourcebook and history. Santa Barbara: Greenwood. pp. 384–385. ISBN 0313345813.
Bibliography
- Jallinoja, Riita. "The Women's Liberation Movement in Finland," Journal of Scandinavian History 5 (1980): 36-49.
- Korppi-Tommola, Aura. "Fighting Together for Freedom:Nationalism, Socialism, Feminism, and Women's Suffrage in Finland 1906." Journal of Scandinavian History 15 (1990): 181-91.
- Moring, Anna, ed. Politics of Gender: A Century of Women's Suffrage in Finland. Helsinki: Otava, 2006.
- Rappaport, Helen. "Alexandra van Gripenberg." In Encyclopedia of Women Social Reformers, edited by Helen Rappaport. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2001, 723-724.
External links
- Works by Alexandra Gripenberg at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Alexandra Gripenberg at the Internet Archive
- Works by Alexandra Gripenberg at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
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- 1857 births
- 1913 deaths
- People from Lakhdenpokhsky District
- People from Viipuri Province (Grand Duchy of Finland)
- Swedish-speaking Finns
- Finnish nobility
- Finnish Party politicians
- Members of the Parliament of Finland
- Finnish women's rights activists
- Finnish writers
- Swedish-language writers
- Finnish women writers
- Finnish feminists
- Finnish women in politics
- 19th-century Finnish people
- Swedish women writers
- Finnish people stubs