Norwegian Life: An Account of Past and Contemporary Conditions and Progress in Norway and Sweden
History
Norwegian Life: An Account of Past and Contemporary Conditions and Progress in Norway and Sweden
Norway -- Social life and customs; Sweden -- Social life and customs
The members of the first chamber of the parliament, which corresponds
to the United States Senate, are elected by conventions of delegates
chosen at popular elections in the country and in cities by the
members of the municipal councils. Therefore, as women have the right
to vote for members of the municipal council and for delegates to
these conventions, they participate indirectly in the election of the
Swedish Senate; but comparatively few exercise the privilege.
Women of advanced views, aided by the members of the socialist party,
are now seeking universal suffrage and a law making them eligible to
parliament and to membership in the provincial and municipal councils.
This proposition has not met with much favor, and the only time it has
ever been brought to vote it was unanimously defeated in the first
chamber of parliament and in the second by fifty-three nays to
forty-four yeas, less than one-half the members present voting.
The first woman to practice medicine in Sweden was Caroline
Widerstrom, who is still living and occupies a prominent position in
Stockholm. Her practice is as large and as profitable as that enjoyed
by most of the men physicians.
The foremost woman in Sweden to-day in intellect and influence, in
popular esteem and in public movements, and the recognized successor
of Fredrika Bremer, is Ellen Key, an authoress and editorial writer
upon _Svenska Dagbladet_.
In the system of local government in Norway, women now participate
upon an equal basis with men. The movements which culminated May,
1901, had been going on since 1884 under the leadership of Miss Gina
Krog, who may be called the Susan B. Anthony of Norway. In the latter
year she organized a woman's suffrage association, delivered a series
of lectures on the subject, and established a newspaper called the
_Nyloende_--meaning "the new ground." Miss Krog is something over
fifty years of age, of fine education and excellent family, and has
been noted for her activity in literary and charitable affairs. She
has been a teacher, a writer for the press, a director of charitable
institutions, and has lived a life of great activity and usefulness,
devoting her own means with generosity to the cause which she has
undertaken.
The suffrage movement at first attracted little attention, but public
sentiment grew slowly, and in 1890 Miss Krog succeeded in having a
bill brought into the storthing giving women the right to vote in
school matters. It received forty-four out of a total of one hundred
and fourteen votes. The liberal party then made it an issue, and two
years after the same bill received a majority in the storthing, but
required two-thirds of the votes to pass. At that time a property
qualification was required of men. The income tax returns were used
as registration lists at the polls, and none but those who paid on
incomes of $84 in the country and $92 in the city were allowed to
vote.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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