The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights (Norwegian: Norsk Kvinnesaksforening; NKF) is Norway's oldest and preeminent women's and girls' rights organization that works "to promote gender equality and all women's and girls' human rights through political and legal reform within the framework of liberal democracy." Founded in 1884, NKF is Norway's second oldest political organization after the Liberal Party. NKF stands for an inclusive, intersectional and progressive mainstream liberal feminism and has always been open to everyone regardless of gender. Headquartered at Majorstuen, Oslo, NKF consists of a national-level association as well as regional chapters based in the larger cities, and is led by a national executive board. NKF has had a central role in the adoption of all major gender equality legislation and reforms since 1884.
NKF was founded on the initiative of Gina Krog and Hagbart Berner by 171 prominent women and men of the progressive liberal establishment, including five Norwegian prime ministers, and was modeled after the predecessors of the League of Women Voters in the U.S. From the early years the association worked to bring women into the political mainstream. Traditionally the most important association of the Norwegian bourgeois-liberal women's rights movement and historically associated with the Liberal Party, NKF is today a big tent coalition with members from the centre-left to the centre-right. The association has always been Norway's most important mainstream feminist organization and has successfully campaigned for women's right to education, the right to vote, the right to work, the adoption of the 1978 Gender Equality Act, and the establishment of the Gender Equality Ombud. At the behest of NKF and affiliated organizations, Norway became the world's first independent country to introduce women's suffrage in 1913. NKF founded the Norwegian Women's Public Health Association.
In line with its roots in 19th century first-wave liberal feminism, political and legal reform remains its primary focus, and it has always concentrated on lobbying government bodies in a professional way. As a result of its focus on legal reform, the association has always attracted many lawyers and other academics. NKF members had key roles in developing the government apparatus and legislation related to gender equality in Norway; during the 1970s, the "Norwegian government adopted NKF's [equality] ideology as its own", and NKF's political tradition is closely linked to the concept of state feminism. In foreign policy NKF has a liberal internationalist outlook and generally supports Norwegian official foreign policy. Starting with the presidency of Eva Kolstad, from 1956, NKF focused strongly on the United Nations, and NKF members have been appointed to key UN bodies including UNCSW and the CEDAW Committee; the CEDAW convention remains an important focus of NKF. NKF is a member of the International Alliance of Women (IAW), which has general consultative status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council and participatory status with the Council of Europe, and is also generally considered as a sister organization of the National Organization for Women. NKF's logo is a stylized sunflower, adopted in 1894, based on the model of the liberal American suffrage movement.
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History
The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights was founded in 1884 by 171 prominent Norwegians, led by the liberal politician and women's rights pioneer Gina Krog and liberal Member of Parliament and the first editor-in-chief of Dagbladet Hagbart Berner. It was modeled after the American National Woman Suffrage Association, the predecessor of the League of Women Voters. The organization's founders included 87 men and 84 women, overwhelmingly prominent liberal public figures.
From its establishment, the organization was strongly associated with the Liberal Party; its 171 founders included five Norwegian prime ministers, several leaders of the Liberal Party, and many liberal Members of Parliament, as well as the editors of the large liberal newspapers and public figures such as novelist Alexander Kielland. Three of the first Presidents of the organization, Anna Stang, Randi Blehr, and Fredrikke Marie Qvam, were all wives of Norwegian prime ministers. NKF grew out of overlapping milieus connected to the political elite and liberal media in Norway, particularly the women's rights association Skuld that had been founded the previous year by the first women to pursue higher education in Norway, but also Læseforening for Kvinder (founded by Camilla Collett in 1874), Nissen's Girls' School, Kristiania Lærerindeforening, the influential political and cultural magazine Nyt Tidsskrift, and the liberal newspaper Dagbladet. Membership has always been open to both women and men, and among the board members in the first years were several prominent lawyers such as the conservative prime minister Francis Hagerup and the attorney-general Annæus Johannes Schjødt. Historian Aslaug Moksnes has noted that NKF is a women's rights organization, not a women's organization; the distinction has always been important to NKF.
NKF is traditionally the main bourgeois or liberal women's rights organization in Norway. Cathrine Holst noted that "the bourgeois women's rights movement was liberal or liberal feminist. The bourgeois women's rights advocates fought for women's civil liberties and rights: freedom of speech, freedom of movement, the right to vote, freedom of association, inheritance rights, property rights and freedom of trade – and for women's access to education and working life. In short, women should have the same freedoms and rights as men."
Among the important causes that the NKF has campaigned for are women's suffrage (achieved in 1913), the right to work (in the 1930s), abolishment of the common taxing for spouses (the 1950s), right to equal schooling (the 1960s), the establishment of the Gender Equality Council (Norwegian: Likestillingsrådet) in 1972, the Gender Equality Ombud in 1978, and the adoption of the Gender Equality Act (1979). The government apparatus concerned with gender equality, including both the Gender Equality Council and the Gender Equality Ombud, were largely built by NKF members.
International work and affiliations
The United Nations has been a major focus of NKF since the presidency of Eva Kolstad starting in 1956. NKF is a member of the International Alliance of Women (IAW), having inherited the founding membership of its de facto subsidiary, the National Association for Women's Suffrage. IAW was the fourth organization to receive general consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 1947. In its international work, particularly at the UN level, NKF cooperates with its sister organizations in the IAW family such as the Icelandic Women's Rights Association, the Danish Women's Society, the Fredrika Bremer Association, the Deutscher Frauenring and the All India Women's Conference. Several NKF members have served on the IAW international board, notably including NKF presidents Margarete Bonnevie, Eva Kolstad, Clara Ottesen, Karin M. Bruzelius and Margunn Bjørnholt. NKF was a founding member of the Joint Organization of Nordic Women's Rights Associations in 1916, and still cooperates with the other Nordic national women's rights associations through IAW.
Policies
Basic vision: Gender equality
Since 1884, [NKF] has understood the struggle for women's rights as fundamentally the same issue as the struggle for gender equality in society. [NKF] has always been open to all people regardless of gender. [NKF] fights for gender equality and for all those who identify as women and girls.
NKF is traditionally the main bourgois-liberal women's rights organization in Norway and applies a human rights approach to its work for gender equality. Today NKF stands for an inclusive, intersectional and progressive liberal feminism and works "to promote gender equality and women's and girls' human rights through political and legal reform within the framework of liberal democracy." NKF describes itself as "an inclusive and non-partisan feminist organization made up of women and men who champion the rights of all girls and women." NKF's main focus is women's political, legal, and human rights, and Harriet Bjerrum Nielsen notes that NKF has "always been liberal and involved in a broad range of issues." NKF focuses on "eliminating attitudes, laws and regulations that are discriminatory towards women and girls and which prevent gender equality".
NKF President Margarete Bonnevie said that NKF will work for solutions that are in the best interest of all women and society, "be the captain who keeps a steady course" in the struggle for equality and "set out the main policy objectives and seek to get the government, parliament and local government bodies to implement the reforms that are required;" accordingly NKF views itself as the leader of the women's movement and struggle for equality in Norway. NKF views gender equality as a human right and argues that women's rights and human rights for all are fundamentally the same issue. NKF has always understood the struggle for women's rights to be identical with the struggle for gender equality, the association's overarching aim since the 19th century.
Core issues
NKF works for the human rights of all girls and women and for a gender equal society. NKF's core issues include "women's political rights, legal equality, women's representation in politics, and gender equality in education, employment, and economic justice" and "violence against girls and women (and) the strengthening of the gender perspective in foreign, security, and development policies."
Political rights, legal equality and representation of women in politics is the most important traditional core focus of NKF.
Equal education, working life and economic justice is the second traditional core focus of NKF.
NKF's main focus in foreign policy is the strengthening of women's rights. NKF has a strong focus on the United Nations system. NKF played a key role in the development of women-focused development projects and initiated the establishment of what became the Forum for Women and Development. NKF is generally supportive of Norwegian official foreign policy, and in line with its liberal feminist political platform and bourgeois origins, the association maintained a pro-Western stance throughout the Cold War. NKF has never been pacifist; NKF founded the Norwegian Women's Public Health Association, originally intended as an affiliate of the Norwegian Red Cross that aimed to support the Norwegian military in a potential conflict with Sweden during the dissolution of the countries' union in 1905. NKF's non-partisan position meant that NKF consciously adopted a neutral stance on many issues not related to gender equality, especially issues that divided opinion among the political centre in Norway, such as Norwegian membership in the European Union. Clara Ottesen, the NKF President during the membership debate, was herself a member of the executive board of the European Movement in Norway at the time. NKF refused to support anti-nuclear campaigns in Norway from the 1970s, as it would be at odds with official Norwegian (and NATO) security policy during the Cold War, and argued that the issue was unrelated to women's rights.
NKF supports safe and legal abortion, birth control, and reproductive health education for all. NKF initiated the establishment of the NGO Sex og politikk that promotes sexual and reproductive health and rights domestically and internationally. In line with the liberal feminist focus on the "public world"—such as laws, political institutions and working life—NKF originally paid little attention to issues of sexuality, and this gradually changed during the 1960s and 1970s when the issue of abortion became important to the association.
Presidents
NKF's president is the highest national-level official and chairs the national board (landsstyret) and the executive board (sentralstyret). NKF's presidents have been:
Symbols
NKF's logo is a stylized sunflower. It was adopted in 1894, based on the model of the liberal American suffrage movement led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony from the 1860s; by the late 19th century, the sunflower had become the main international symbol of women's suffrage. The logo was also used as the logo of NKF's journal Nylænde, edited by Gina Krog. NKF states that the sunflower represents the association's "roots in the first wave of feminism and our systematic work since 1884 to promote gender equality through constructive political reforms within the framework of liberal democracy".
Journals
NKF published the journal Nylænde (New Land) from 1887 to 1927, edited by Gina Krog until her death in 1916 and then by Fredrikke Mørck. Nylænde was the first women's rights journal in Norway and was regarded as one of the most influential political journals of the country in its time. It played a major role in the early women's rights movement and the struggle for women's suffrage. It was also a leading journal of literary criticism; Marius Wulfsberg has stated that "it was Gina Krog and her [Nylænde] reviewers who really made Ibsen famous."
From 1950 to 2016 NKF published the journal Kvinnesaksnytt (Women's Rights News) that included news and analysis of Norwegian and international women's rights issues. The editors of Kvinnesaksnytt included Ingerid Gjøstein Resi, Marit Aarum, Eva Kolstad, Kari Skjønsberg, Karin M. Bruzelius, Torild Skard and Margunn Bjørnholt.
Awards
NKF's highest honour is its honorary membership, which was first awarded to Camilla Collett in 1884. Since 2009, NKF also awards the Gina Krog Prize, named after its founder.
Gina Krog Prize
Since 2009, the association has awarded the Gina Krog Prize, named after its founder Gina Krog. The prize has been awarded to
Historians Ida Blom, Gro Hagemann, Elisabeth Lønnå, Aslaug Moksnes and Elisabeth Aasen (2009)
Filmmaker Anja Breien (2010)
Tove Smaadahl (2012)
Kirsti Kolle Grøndahl (2014)
Amal Aden (2016)
Nancy Herz, Sofia Nesrine Srour and Amina Bile (2018)
Anne Hellum (2020)