Gina Krog

Gina Krog (20 June 1847 – 14 April 1916) was a Norwegian feminist pioneer, teacher, liberal politician and editor. She played a central role in the Norwegian women's movement from the 1880s until her death, notably as a leading campaigner for women's right to education and the right to vote. She founded the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights together with liberal MP Hagbart Berner.

Early and personal life

Gina Krog ca. 1873.

Jørgine Anna Sverdrup Krog was born in Flakstad, Lofoten as the daughter of parish priest Jørgen Sverdrup Krog and Ingeborg Anna Dass Brinchmann. After her father's early death she lived with her mother in Karmøy until she was eight years old, and then moved to Christiania. In Christiania she attended a school for girls. She later worked as an autodidact teacher in private schools for several years, until 1880. Through her brother she was aunt of writer Helge Krog,^[1] and sister-in-law of Cecilie Thoresen Krog.

She was also among the first women to go hiking in the mountains of Jotunheimen, which gave her a reputation as "mountaineer".^[1]

Career

In 1880 Gina Krog travelled to Great Britain, where she stayed a while at the Bedford College, and made contacts with the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and the leader of the organization Millicent Garrett Fawcett. Back in Norway she started writing newspaper articles, first under pseudonyms, and later under her own name.^[2] She belonged to the radical feminists, demanding full equal political rights between women and men, contrasting the more moderate feminists who focused on the improvement of women's financial conditions. She proclaimed the women's right to vote on equal conditions as men, without compromise. This point of view came to be a disputed issue within the feminist movement of the time.^[1]

Statue of Gina Krog

Krog co-founded the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights in 1884, together with its first chairman Hagbard Emanuel Berner, and was the association's vice president from 1884 to 1888.^[2] She edited the association's periodical Nylænde from its start in 1887 until her death in 1916.^[3] In 1885 Berner resigned as chairman, as a protest against Krog's talk Stemmeret for Kvinder. In December 1885 Krog founded Kvinnestemmerettsforeningen (KSF), an association only for women. Twelve years later, after internal conflicts with more compromising members, Krog left this association and started the National Association for Women's Suffrage in 1898. LKSF was admitted as a member of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance from it start 1904.^[1] In 1904 she founded the Norwegian National Women's Council (associated with the International Council of Women), and chaired this organization until her death.^[4]

Krog early became a member of the Liberal Party, and was elected a deputy member of its national board in 1909.

Krog was the first women in Norway to be honoured with a funeral at public expense. Her funeral in 1916 was attended by the Prime Minister, the President of the Storting, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.^[1]

Legacy

The Gina Krog Prize, awarded by the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights since 2009, is named in her honour.^[5]

On 8 March 2013, the Dagny oil field was renamed Gina Krog by Statoil in her honour.^[6]

References