LIFE STORY
Gina Krog (ca. 1880-90)
(1847 – 1916)
Gina Krog was a Norwegian feminist, lecturer, writer and politician. She was born on June 20, 1847 in Flakstad, Loften, Norway. Her father, a pastor, had died before her birth. Her mother moved with her children into her father's family home for the first years of Gina's life. In 1855 they moved to Kristiania (today's Oslo). She was a good student during her youth and due to Norwegian laws regarding women, she had to continue her studies in another country where women could obtain additional education. In 1880 Gina found herself studying in England at Bedford College where women's issues were the rage. She adopted women's rights and causes as her life's work.
Gina began writing in the daily press on the issues affecting women. Upon returning to Norway and after teaching for a short time, she became a national leader in the woman's movement and established many Norwegian woman's rights organizations. Although considered a radical in the woman's movement, she was willing to work with others to further the cause in less radical ways.
Being an active Liberal party member, she was appointed to a government posts for different international women's groups. Additionally, Gina was the editor of a popular woman's rights magazine (Nyænde) that also had a strong following in America with Norwegian-American women. She strongly believed women to be equal to men and therefore should have equal rights including the right to an education and voting rights. Her lifelong work helped change Norwegian laws so that Norwegian women gained more voting, working, educational rights and freedoms.
She lived for 69 years, and died on April 14, 1916. The Norwegian government paid for her burial expenses, the first women ever thus honored. Additional information on her life...