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  • Finland's Alexandra Gripenberg Sought Universal Women's Rights
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Finland's Alexandra Gripenberg Sought Universal Women's Rights

Picture

Alexandra Gripenberg of Finland agitated for universal
women’s rights and for poltical freedom for her native Finland and its citizens,
especially women.


Women suffragists in countries including Norway, Great Britain, and Finland worked alongside American suffragists like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton for the common cause of women’s voting and equal rights all over the world. Alexandra Gripenberg agitated internationally for women’s rights and she also helped develop the women’s movement during turbulent political times in her native Finland.

Alexandra Gripenberg Sends Elizabeth Cady Stanton A Letter

Today, Elizabeth Cady Stanton is an icon in woman’s suffrage history while Alexandra Gripenberg is less well known, even in her native Finland. Alexandra especially devoted herself to the cause of international cooperation in the women’s movement. She heavily influenced the women’s movement in Finland, serving for years as chairman of the Finnish Women’s Association. In 1907, she was one of the nineteen women elected to the Diet
after Finland achieved universal suffrage


On a more personal level, Alexandra Gripenberg sent Elizabeth Cady Stanton a letter to congratulate her on her 80th birthday which her colleagues and friends gathered to celebrate at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York the week of October 15, 1895. Alexandra Gripenberg wrote her congratulations from Helsinki, Finland, and she told Elizabeth Cady Stanton that as the president of Finsk Kvinnoforening she and her organization sent her respectful greetings to Elizabeth on her 80th birthday.

Alexandra Gripenberg Is Born A Writer

Alexandra Gripenberg loved writing before she became a feminist and Fennoman. Born August 30, 1857, Alexandra was the eleventh of the twelve children of Baron Sebastian Gripenberg and Mary Louise Ohrnberg. Sebastian had established a career in the Army and served as director of the Mustiala, a well known agricultural institute. He also was a senator in Helsinki, Finland..

The Finland of Alexandra's birth had been part of the Kingdom of Sweden from the Thirteenth Century to 1809, when Sweden ceded the region to the Russian Empire and it became the self ruling Grand duchy of Finland. During these years, Finnish nationalism focused on Finnish cultural traditions, including music and a distinctive Finnish language. Alexandra would heavily contribute to this Finnish nationalism.

When Alexandra was born, her family had already lived on their farm in Tervus Kurkjoki, located in Ladogakarelen for many years, but in 1863, Sebastian's failing health prompted him to move his family to Majby farm in Kirkkonummi. He died in 1869, and his widow Mary Louise continued to live at Majby with their large family.

Just twelve years old when her father died, Alexandra hadn't yet had any formal schooling, but her two big sisters, Mary and Elisabeth, were attending the girls' school in St. Petersburg and they taught Alexandra a wide range of subjects from language and arithmetic to music and dance. She also learned Eanglish and an appreciation of literature.

During these years, Alexandra developed a love of writing and she spent many hours writing stories. For a time she worked as a secretary of Zachris Topelius, a journalist, author, historian, and rector of the University of Helsinki who read her stories and encouraged her to keep writing.. Impressed with Alexandra’s talent, Zachris Topelius helped her publish Tales of the Making in 1878. Alexandra and Toini Topelius, the
daughter of Zachris Topelius, became good friends and they jointly edited the
children’s magazine New Dragonfly between 1885 and 1889. They maintained a lifelong friendship and wrote to each other frequently.


In 1880, Alexandra's mother Mary Louise died, and shortly after her mother's death she lived with her sister Elisabeth Stenius in Kuopio. Elisabeth and her husband belonged to Finnish literary and political circles and Alexandra met writers and activists in their home. Her sisters Elisabeth and Mary heavily influenced Alexandra's career choice, and eventually she moved to Helsinki wih her brother, Self.

Alexandra Gripenberg Becomes A Fennomen

After the Crimean War ended in 1856, the Finnish people fiercely debated their conceptions of the Finnish nation. A group of dedicated Finnish activists called the Fennomens founded the Finnish Party and agitated to raise Finnish language and culture
from peasant status to the standard for national language and culture, while
the opposition Svecomans defended the existing Swedish and ties to the Germanic
world.


In 1884, with her good friends Toini Topelius and Lina Arppe, Alexandra founded the Finnish Women’s Association and elected Elisabeth Lofgren chairman. Alexandra devoted herself to her writing and published a short story collection called Straws.
In 1886, her novel, The Thickening Stage, appeared, again with the help of Zachris Topelius. The themes of the two books deal with feminist and Finnish national issues and Alexandra published them under her pen name Aarne.


Zachris Topelius and Alexandra’s other friends encouraged her to go aboard to study and seek new experiences to deepen her writing. In the autumn of 1887, Alexandra and Alli Trygg, a teacher and temperance activist, went to England. They had planned to study English literature, but in London, Alexandra received a letter from Elisabeth Lofgren
that changed their plans.


Elisabeth asked her to extend her stay aboard and travel to the United States to represent the Finnish Women’s Association at an International Women’s Congress in Washington D.C. in March of 1888. Elisabeth Lofgren had planned to attend, but her plans had changed. Alexandra’s companion Alli had an invitation as well, so the two friends could represent Finland in the Congress.

In England, Alexandra Gripenberg had met Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who along with Susan B. Anthony had founded the National Women Suffrage Association in 1868. She also interacted with other famous American activists including May Wright Sewall and
Francis Willard, and socialized with feminists from Scotland, France, Norway,
Germany, Ireland, Canada, and India. The issues that the International Women's
Congress debated included controversial topics like Temperance, women's work, charity, and political rights, especially voting for women. From 1883 until 1889, Alexandra served as treasurer of the International Women's Association.


Alexandra Gripenberg Returns to Activism in Finland

Six months after the International Women’s Congress ended, Alexandra Gripenberg still remained in the United States, traveling around the country. When she returned to Finland in 1888, she had gathered and analyzed voluminous amounts of observations and interviews for her book, A Half Year in the New World, published in Finland in 1889. Her book included her report of the first International Council of Women.

One of the key points that Alexandra made in A Half Year in the New World, focused on the American woman and her various roles that allowed the home to function as a key to American society. The American trip was crucial to Alexandra Gripenberg’s women’s movement activities and her writing. When she published A Half Year in the New World, Alexandra abandoned fiction to focus on non-fiction moral and political work and also, as a Fenomman, she wrote her book in Finnish and began spelling her name Aleksandra
in the Finnish way.


When Alexandra returned to Finland, she accepted the chairmanship of the Finnish Women’s Association in February 1889, the beginning of a long presidency that lasted until 1909 with a five year break from 1904-1909 in between.

Alexandra Gripenberg imprinted her presidency with her involvement in the International Women’s Movement and her operations in the local Finnish national movement. During her presidency she focused on the activities of working women and women’s rights and involved the Finnish Women’s Association in publishing activities.

Alexandra’s books were published as were lectures, biographies of famous foreign women and also, the Association’s own journal, the Kotija Yhteiskunta, that Alexandra edited. In 1893, Alexandra opened a youth library in the Finnish Women’s Association headquarters.

Alexandra Gripenberg And Voting Rights

The Finnish Women’s Association had listed voting rights as one of the top items on its agenda since its founding in 1884, but it took until 1904 to address the universal suffrage question.

The Finnish political situation with Russia constantly shredded the fabric of Finnish nationalism and even though the Finnish political parties had different views about managing Finland’s relationship with Russia, most Finnish people agreed that the Finnish Diet must survive. Alexandra encouraged Finnish women to agitate for the right to vote and work for women’s rights, and in 1906, Finland granted women the right to vote and to
stand for parliamentary office, the first European country to do so.


In March 1907, Alexandra and eighteen other women from five different parties were elected to the Finnish Diet. She continued to work for women’s rights, especially working women’s rights, and Prohibition.In 1911, Alexandra Gripenberg officially represented Finland in the International Women’s Congress executive meeting in Stockholm, a distinction she had worked years to achieve.

As early as 1904, Alexandra Gripenberg’s doctors had told her she had diabetes and counseled that her health wouldn’t permit her to run for parliamentary elections in 1909. Her health continued to deteriorate and by 1913, she lived in a Swedish nursing home. In the autumn of 1913, she still led a few Finnish Women’s Association meetings, but on Christmas Eve 1913, her heart finally stopped. Finnish, Swedish, and foreign newspapers
printed obituary notices that chronicled Alexandra Gripenberg’s decades long and diverse efforts for woman suffrage and women’s rights both at home and internationally.


References

Dubois, Ellen. Women Suffrage and Women's Rights. New York University Press, 1998.

Evans, Richard. The Feminists:
Women's Emancipation Movements in Europe, America, and Australia,
1840-1920. Barnes & Noble, London, 1977.


Freedman, Estelle. No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women.
Ballantine Books, 2003.


Fulford, Roger. Votes for Women: The Story of a Struggle. Faber & Faber, London. 1957.

Kraditor, Aileen S. The Ideas  of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 1890-1920. W.W. Norton & Company, 1981.

Lewis, Richard D. Finland: Cultural Lone Wolf. Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2004.

Matthews, Jean V. The Rise of the New Woman: The Women's Movement in America, 1875-1939.
 


 


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  • Home
  • Women's Rooms
    • Womens Rooms-Anne
    • Womens Rooms-Abigail
    • The Dead Baby in a Blue Blanket: The
    • Rena Rides the Raindrops
  • Women at Work-Blog
  • E Books and Print Books for Sale
  • Women of Historical Complexion
  • Rachel and Elizabeth Knaggs
  • Elizabeth Stiles, President Lincoln's Spy
  • Loyalist Lucy Flucker Meets Patriot Henry Knox at a Boston Parade
  • Queen Maria Amelia, the Last Queen of Portugal, Stood Her Ground
  • The Lady and the Patriot: Theodosia Burr Alston's Fateful Voyage
  • Margaret Agnew Blennerhassett - More Character Than Riches
  • Florence Nightingale- Nurse, Feminist, Statistician, Author
  • Mary Todd Lincoln Considered April Her "Season of Sadness"
  • Mrs. Santa Claus - A Strong and Supportive Woman for All Seasons
  • Elizabeth Turner McCormick, Woman Voyager
  • Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Fought for Human Rights
  • Mary Fields, Stage Coach Mail Driver, Sharp Shooter, Faithful Friend
  • Lucy Parsons, "More Dangerous Than A Thousand Rioters"
  • Lydia Maria Francis Child Travels 'Over the River and Through the Wood'
  • Anti-Suffragists Believed Women Didn't Need the Right to Vote
  • Finland's Alexandra Gripenberg Sought Universal Women's Rights
  • From Frances Slocum to Little Bear Woman and Back Again
  • Madame Elisabeth Thible is the First Woman to Ride in a Free Floating Balloon
  • Veronica Kerler Frank Pined for Germany, But Made Milwaukee Her Home
  • Mary Humphreys Stamps, Undefeated Rebel with An Educational Cause
  • Sister Monica Is One of Milwaukee, Wisconsin's Early Pioneers
  • A Love Story for St. Valentine's Day - Marie Antoinette and Count Axel von Fersen
  • Three Wisconsin Women of the Waves
  • Margaret Fox Kane and her Victorian Love Story
  • Francoise Marie Jacquelin, Lioness of La Tour, Lioness of Acadia, Woman in Her Own Right
  • Mary Breckinridge, Circuit Riding Nurse and Founder of the Frontier Nursing Service
  • Women Bicyclists Break Their Glass Cages and Ride into Liberation
  • Maria Mitchell, America's First Woman Astronomer Demonstrated Female Scientific Aptitude
  • Queen Alexandra of Great Britain-Queen Victoria's Daughter-in-Law, Bertie's Patient Wife, and Her Own Person!
  • Chicagoan Kate Kellogg Meets a Ghost on a Train
  • Isobel Lillian Steele Went to a Party and Ended Up in a Nazi Jail
  • Madam Sophie Blanchard - "Official Aeronaut of the Restoration"
  • Women of Their Time and Place
    • Nadine Turchin Fights Alongside Her Husband in the Civil War
    • War Stories Along Lake Erie: Ordinary Women Experience the War of 1812
    • Katie Walker Tends Robbins Reef Light Near the Statue of Liberty
    • Maria Gulovich Joined the Czech Resistance
    • Pirate Fanny Campbell Freed Her Fiance and Fought the British
    • SOE Agent Andree Borrel Lived Several Lifetimes in Her 24 Years
    • Lydia Latrobe Roosevelt and the First Mississippi River Steamboat
    • Sophie Kwiatkowski Served as a New Guinea Nurse in World War II
    • Clara Zetkin Spoke Against Hitler in the German Reichstag
    • Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, Female Fuhrer, Breathed Her Nazi Beliefs
    • Nancy Leo , the Only Woman Buried in Luxembourg American Cemetery
    • Dickey Chapelle, Journalist and War Correspondent
    • Lucena Brockway Adapts to Life in the Keweenaw Copper Mining Country of Lake Superior
    • Does Mary Surrat's Ghost Haunt the Senate Chambers Seeking Justice?
    • The Ghostly Cyclist in Brooklyn's Prospect Park
  • Women of Contemporary 20th and 21st Century Complexion
    • Clara Ward Chimay, Gilded Age Princess
    • Ruth Becker's Faith Helps Her Survive the Titanic and Beyond
    • Mildred Beltmann , Wartime Wife
    • The Courage of their Cultural Convictions - Women Missionaries in China
    • Light and Radiance - Laurence Owen and Her Sabena Fellow Travelers
    • Edna St. Vincent Millay, Passionate Poet, Candle-Lit Feminist
    • Fascinating Footnote: The Goose Down Divorce
    • Olive Higgins Prouty Juggles to Balance Home and Career
    • Mother and Daughter Journalists Agnes Meyer and Katharine Graham Shaped Journalism
    • Rose Friedman and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
    • Katharine Meyer Graham Leaves Her Mark on the Washington Post
    • Ida M. Tarbell, "Bachelor Soul," Transitional Woman, or Both?
    • Nurse Edith Cavell, the Courage to Die for Her Country
    • Sigrid Schultz Outsmarted Hermann Goering
    • Martha Dickie Sharp Saves Jewish Refugees from the Nazi Death Machine
    • Virginia Graham Pioneered in Early Television and Survived Cancer
    • Rose Conway, President Harry Truman's Secret Weapon
    • Nancy Green, Talented Entrepreneur, Transitional Symbol
    • "Surrender on Demand:" The Friendship of Mary Jayne Gold and Miriam Ebel
    • Julia K. Tibbitts - Closet Environmentalist
    • Lee Lawrence Ansberry Reconquers the World and Reshapes Her Life
  • Christmas Cheer